Trial of Michael Jackson's doctor postponed
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 6:00PM 
The manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's personal doctor, which was shut down Monday because of a death in the family of a prosecution witness, was further postponed until Wednesday.
Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said he was putting off trial testimony for two reasons: giving Steven Shafer of New York, the witness, more time to handle family matters, and allowing defendant Conrad Murray's lawyers to obtain experts' response to a new toxicology test the coroner's office performed for the prosecution.
At a sometimes ill-tempered hearing with Murray and the jury absent Monday, defense lawyers Ed Chernoff and J. Michael Flanagan objected to prosecution plans to present the new test on Jackson's stomach contents when they resume questioning Shafer, an anesthesiologist.
Pastor gave the defense more time to find its own expert opinions to support cross-examination of Shafer. The judge scheduled another hearing for Tuesday afternoon to discuss the status of the defense's preparation.
Murray, 58, is accused of negligently causing Jackson's death in 2009 through an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol, which, according to the coroner's autopsy report, combined with the sedative lorazepam to stop Jackson's breathing. Murray, a cardiologist, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter. His lawyers say Jackson ingested lethal doses of drugs himself when the doctor was out of the room.
Prosecutor David Walgren said Monday that his office had requested that Jackson's stomach contents be retested for lorazepam. This, he said, was in response to a defense-commissioned toxicology report on lorazepam that Flanagan presented to the jury last week during cross-examination of the coroner's toxicologist, Dan Anderson.
The defense's lab report enabled Flanagan to say there was enough lorazepam in the singer's stomach to prove that he had swallowed eight 2-milligram tablets of lorazepam, "enough to put six people to sleep."
By contrast, the new report that Walgren ordered says there was much less lorazepam than the defense claims.
In addition to questioning Shafer on the coroner's latest test, Walgren will recall Anderson to testify to his office's new report, he said.
The hearing grew tense after defense lawyers accused the prosecution of violating a September 2010 court order forbidding new tests on medical evidence without specific permission from the judge. Walgren said the order related only to syringes and other medical supplies, not to "biological evidence" such as stomach contents.
The defense ultimately agreed and apologized. "We're sorry, David," Chernoff said in a tone of sarcasm. "You did not violate a court order."
The judge interrupted. "His name is not David," Pastor said, implying that Chernoff should have addressed his opponent more formally.
Pastor ended the spat by saying, "There was an allegation the facts do not support, and there's an apology by the defense."
Chernoff said that having until Wednesday to study Anderson's new report "may rectify the problem." He had suggested not allowing Walgren to offer the report until the prosecution's rebuttal case, which will follow the presentation of the defense's expected 15 witnesses. Pastor said he would prefer that the lorazepam evidence be introduced this week during the prosecution's main case.
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Conrad Murray, brazil, chernoff, dan anderson, delay, flanagan, justice4mj, michael jackson, shafer, toxicology, trial, walgren | Email Article | Print Article
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