Jackson’s fame may pose challenge for defense team

February 11, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By LINDA DEUTSCH

LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson’s fame could pose a challenge for Dr. Conrad Murray’s defense team as his lawyers fight an involuntary manslaughter charge against the physician in the singer’s death.

Citing the “popularity of Michael Jackson,” criminal defense lawyer Harland Braun, who has handled celebrity cases and defended doctors in court, said Tuesday that Murray’s defense team has a monumental job ahead.

“How would [jurors] be accepted back into the community if they acquit him?” Braun said. “It’s a tough case.”

Attorney Steve Cron, who also has handled medical cases, said the attorneys are being confronted this week with a mountain of evidence amassed by the Los Angeles Police Department during their nearly eight-month investigation.

“I would safely say there are tens of thousands of pages of reports as well as CDs, videos, phone records and photographs.

“They will be looking at all of Michael Jackson’s medical records, search warrant affidavits and reports on every person who was interviewed,” Cron said.

Cron said Jackson’s interaction with the doctor and his alleged demands for the drug propofol is likely to come into play.

“A bad result doesn’t mean bad doctoring,” said Cron. “They will find an expert who will say he had a difficult, demanding patient who needed to sleep and he did what was reasonable.”

Jackson died at the age of 50 on June 25 in his rented Bel Air mansion. Murray, a Caribbean born physician who had been hired by the superstar to look after his health during a rigorous comeback tour, told police he gave Jackson propofol and other sedatives to help him sleep.

Murray’s lead counsel, Ed Chernoff, has said that nothing the doctor gave Jackson should have killed him.

A coroner’s report found that the singer died of acute propofol intoxication.

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren, who charged Murray with involuntary manslaughter, will seek to prove he acted with “gross negligence” when he gave the singer propofol. The anesthetic is used in hospital situations for surgery, and prosecution experts are expected to say it was reckless to use it in a private home without proper equipment.

“It will probably be a battle of the experts,” said McGregor Scott, a Sacramento criminal defense lawyer who is also a former state and federal prosecutor.

“If the defense comes up with a doctor with spotless credentials who says this was reasonable, that could create reasonable doubt.”

Some wonder if doctors will be willing to testify for Murray in such a controversial case, but Scott said, “There’s always an expert that can be found.”

Murray has hired an impressive three-person legal team to represent him. In addition to Chernoff, his lawyers are J. Michael Flanagan, who once defended a nurse on propofol-related charges, and Joseph Low who represented two Marines who were court-martialed on charges of crimes in Iraq.

Murray’s next court appearance is April 5 to schedule a preliminary hearing.