Day 21 of Court: Defense Witness Admits Murray’s Mistake

Yesterday, the prosecution began its cross-examination of the defense attorneys’ witness, Dr. Paul White. In the previous court session, White had claimed that Michael Jackson was responsible for his own death.

He said yesterday that after Michael was anesthetized, he got up from his bed, took the syringe filled with propofol that Murray had left behind, and injected himself with a large amount of the drug.

During an aggressive debate, prosecutor David Walgren mocked White’s viewpoint and called it foolish. As a result of the argument, White accepted that Murray had made a mistake. Walgren described the situation Michael was in. He was lying on the bed, with a document attached to him, and under the influence of sleeping pills and propofol, he was unconscious.

Walgren continued: “So we have to imagine that Michael Jackson, with an IV connected to his leg, was able to walk. He got up, carried the IV stand with him while a document was attached to him, and Conrad Murray was somewhere around, busy talking on the phone.”White: “That’s plausible.”

But White said that this theory requires us to accept that Dr. Murray had been away from Michael’s room for a longer time. Conrad Murray says he left the room for only 2 minutes, while the prosecution says it was more than 45 minutes.

White then said that he would never leave his unconscious patient.

Walgren pointed out that White had steered the defense attorneys toward the theory of Michael’s death caused by drinking propofol—a theory that was dismissed in court. White said that when he presented this theory to the defense attorneys, he had not conducted any investigation into it, and in the end it turned out to have no scientific basis.

Walgren then asked: “Have you ever given someone propofol inside a bedroom?”White: “No.”Walgren: “Before this case, had you ever heard of someone being anesthetized with propofol in their room?”White: “No.”

Monday was a very difficult day for the defense attorneys. Walgren ultimately forced White to admit that Murray had crossed medical standards. White said that under no circumstances would he have given his patient propofol in a bedroom. He said:

“No amount of money could have made me do something like that.”

White, who had said on Friday that Murray’s actions could not have posed a danger to Michael Jackson’s life, yesterday accepted that Conrad Murray’s method of medical care was, in principle, dangerous.

White: “Anesthesia without monitoring people can be dangerous.”Walgren: “Or lead to death?”

White replied that it could lead to respiratory arrest and cardiac arrest. Michael died due to cardiac arrest.

Conrad Murray testified that the doctor on his defense team, like all the doctors seated in court who had taken an oath, criticized him for using propofol to treat Michael Jackson’s insomnia.

White said that Murray’s use of this drug as a treatment for insomnia was a medical error and drug misuse. Moreover, injecting it at home and in the absence of medical equipment is dangerous and should never be done.

Yesterday, Dr. White tried several times to provide information to the court based on what he said he had learned from two detailed conversations with Murray. Each time, he faced objections from the prosecutor, who said that the only thing Murray was allowed to have heard in court was the video of his interrogation by police after Michael’s death, which had already been shown in court.

By accepting the prosecutor’s objections, the judge was reprimanding White. He also warned him to answer the prosecutor’s questions carefully.

White’s ears were not “deaf” to the judge’s warnings, and the judge dismissed the jury so that the issue could be addressed out of their sight.

Before the session began, the judge had warned White not to bring up any personal conversations with Murray in court. In one situation, White addressed the jury and said: “I would have liked to tell you about this, but the judge said I’m not allowed.”

The judge considered White’s remark an insult to the court and said he must explain it during the November 16 hearing. On that day, White will also be questioned about his insult of the prosecutor and calling him “trash.”

The prosecutor said that White’s behavior stems from bad intent, and the defense attorney, Michael Flanagan, argued that White is unable to distinguish the information he received from Murray from the information Murray stated in the interrogation video.

Pastor, with sarcasm, addressed Flanagan:

“Thank you for your efforts! It can’t be any clearer than this, can it? He’s trying, in every possible way, to say things in this court that are not part of the case information. This is done on purpose. I didn’t like it, and it won’t happen again.”

As a result of Dr. Paul White’s irresponsible behavior and his insult to the court, he was fined one thousand dollars.

White then said that so far he had received $11,000 as a reward for his work on the case from the defense attorneys.

When asked whether he expected to be paid for each day he appeared in the witness stand, he said the usual rate is $3,500, but he didn’t expect to receive it because the defense attorneys’ budget is limited.

Dr. Steven Shaffer, who testified before White and had called Murray responsible for Michael Jackson’s death, said he had not received any payment for working on the case from the prosecution. In the witness stand, he angrily listed Conrad Murray’s medical mistakes.

At the end of yesterday’s day, Conrad Murray informed the judge that he had not yet decided whether he would take the witness stand, and that he would update the court on Tuesday.

Shaffer and White, two colleagues from Stanford University, were the first doctors to conduct joint studies on this substance and introduce it to the medical community in 1989, when propofol had not yet been accepted in the United States as an anesthetic. Before White retired last year, he worked alongside Shaffer as an anesthesiology specialist.

The prosecutor said that at the next session, he would return Shaffer to the stand for the sixth time, and the defense attorneys would have White as their last witness.

Source: eMJey.com / LA Times / ABC News