Day 15 of Court: A Dispute Between Two Doctors
On Friday, professor Steven Shafer took the witness stand for the fourth time, this time to be questioned by the defense attorney for the defendant, Murray, Ed Chernoff.
Shafer had previously said that the only way to explain Michael Jackson’s death is if a propofol IV drip was connected to his leg and left there by Dr. Murray while he was alone in the room. Chernoff: “That’s a very big claim from you! Isn’t that right?!” Shafer: “This is an honest statement of what happened.”
Chernoff challenged Shafer’s statements, but the doctor said that his remarks were based on findings from Michael’s room, the autopsy results, and Conrad Murray’s own statements.
With patience and using a chart for the jury, Shafer explained that Michael had suffered respiratory arrest due to the propofol injection, and that no one was there beside him to help him breathe.
He had said on Wednesday that if Conrad Murray had been there and reopened Michael’s airway—which had been blocked by his tongue—by lifting his chin upward, Michael could have breathed again.
Shafer said that propofol, which was inside an IV bag, was pulled downward into Michael Jackson’s vein due to gravity.
A 100-milliliter bottle of propofol with its cap opened was found in Michael’s room. The prosecution says that this bottle was placed inside an opened IV bag and that it leaked into the IV tube connected to Michael’s leg until the very last drop.
Shafer also rejected any possibility that Michael caused his own death.
Yesterday, the court became tense.
Apparently, a key witness for Conrad Murray’s defense team, Dr. Paul White—a longtime colleague of Dr. Shafer and someone who disagrees with his views—called someone in the courtroom “trash.” It’s unclear whether this person was prosecutor David Walgren or Dr. Shafer.
Michael Pastor, the judge, said he was thinking about fining Dr. White and the defense team, and scheduled a hearing for November 16 to address the matter.
Dr. White denied the remark yesterday, which had been reported by E! Online, but he accepted that he had made critical statements about Dr. Shafer in the media.
Pastor, who had previously repeated an order banning comments about the case for the defense attorneys, told their witness in the absence of the jury:
“You have nothing to do with commenting on this case!”
Shafer is the prosecution’s most important witness, and White is the defense’s most important witness. These two old colleagues say they are friends. Shafer and White have different opinions about the Michael Jackson murder case.
Source: eMJey.com / msn / latimes / eonline