Murray to return to court in April

February 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Jackson’s doctor returns to court in April to find out the date for the next major step in the case — a proceeding that will reveal for the first time the evidence the prosecution believes will show his “gross negligence” was the direct cause of the pop star’s death.

Dr. Conrad Murray pleaded innocent Monday to a charge of involuntary manslaughter, and a judge released him on $75,000 bail.

Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz ordered Murray to turn in his passport and said he could travel within the U.S., but not to any foreign country. The prosecutor had suggested he might flee to his native Grenada or to Trinidad where he has a child.

Murray was ordered to return April 5 to have another date set for his preliminary hearing. That proceeding, a virtual minitrial, will disclose the evidence prosecutors maintain will demonstrate Murray’s “gross negligence.”

Murray is accused of giving Jackson a fatal dose of an anesthetic to help him sleep. Jackson died June 25. If convicted, the doctor could face up to four years in prison.

Schwartz told Murray he was restricting his practice of medicine, barring him from using any anesthetic agent, specifically the drug propofol that a coroner’s report found was the cause of Jackson’s death with other drugs as contributing factors.