The 2003 Accusations File, Financial Issues, and “Demerol” Won’t Be Discussed in Court

Yesterday, on the anniversary of Michael Jackson’s 53rd birthday, a hearing was held to address his murder case. On Friday, the prosecutor asked that the defense’s witness list be limited. Walgren said that the investigator handling the 2003 accusations against Michael Jackson should not be allowed to testify in court regarding his involuntary manslaughter trial. The prosecutor had said: "This case should focus on the quality of medical care provided by Conrad Murray to Michael Jackson. This case should not turn into an unfair, unjustified, and unrelated attack on the victim." Michael Jackson had been acquitted of all charges after a months-long trial in 2005. Yesterday, Judge Pastor announced that the lawyers would not be allowed to subpoena any of the witnesses from the 2003 case. One of the investigators who had participated in the search of Michael’s home in 2003 was one of those witnesses. The judge said that linking the current case to the 2003 case and the 2005 trial would distract the jury from the current murder case. In addition, the judge said that these two cases were completely unrelated. Defense attorney Ed Chernoff said that in the 2003 case they were looking for evidence of Michael’s addiction to the drug Demerol. Murray’s lawyers had from the beginning put forward the theory that Michael was addicted to Demerol. The prosecutor’s response to Chernoff was clear: "After the autopsy, no trace of Demerol was found in his body." The judge barred the lawyers from bringing up Demerol, and in this regard another one of their witnesses, Dr. Arnold Klein, was also removed from the list. The lawyers had always said that Klein had injected Demerol into Michael. Judge Pastor said Klein’s statements could be used in court, but neither he nor his assistant would have the right to come to court and testify. No doubt this order made Klein happy. He had always emphasized that he had never injected Demerol into Michael. Prosecutor Walgren said it appeared that the defense lawyers wanted to pin Michael Jackson’s death on Klein, and the judge agreed with his statement and said: "Subpoenaing Dr. Klein brings a third party into this case and will take the jury’s focus away." The prosecutor also asked to limit the testimony of several doctors who were on the defense’s witness list. None of these doctors had provided medical care to Michael in the days leading up to his death, nor were they by his side at the moment he died. Judge Pastor had previously said that the flow of the case would be limited to the few days and nights leading up to Michael’s death. Of the nine doctors and nurses that the defense wanted to bring to court, the judge allowed only two doctors and one nurse to appear in the witness stand. One of them was David Adams, an anesthesiology specialist who had injected Propofol into Michael at least four times, including in dental cases. Ed Chernoff said that Adams had injected Propofol into Michael in April 2009 at Dr. Murray’s office. John Branca, one of the two trustees of the Michael Jackson Foundation and Tom Tom’s former program manager, was another witness whose name was struck from the defense’s witness list yesterday. The prosecutor wanted to know why the defense lawyers—who had never even spoken with Branca—think his testimony would be related to the case. The judge, with the explanation that Jackson’s financial issues would not be discussed in this court, also barred the testimony of these two people. Judge Michael Pastor has instructed the defense lawyers to appear in court on September 6 to finalize the questionnaires for the selected members of the jury. The selection of jurors will begin two days later. On September 23, the prosecution and the defense can question the selected jury members in court. Source: eMJey.com / CNN.com