newsmakers

newsmakers

Autopsy photos to be shown at doc’s trial

LOS ANGELES

Prosecutors can show jurors two images from Michael Jackson’s autopsy during the involuntary manslaughter trial of the pop star’s doctor, a judge ruled Thursday.

Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said the photographs, one of which shows Jackson clothed and another one with him nude, are relevant to the case and described them as benign photos that are not graphic or gruesome.

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren said he is aware the singer’s family will be in the courtroom during the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, adding that the images will be carefully displayed.

The prosecutor said the images will bolster its case that the singer was healthy overall and that they also would show puncture marks on Jackson’s body.

Defense attorneys objected to the photos’ being displayed during trial, arguing that coroner’s officials and experts can describe Jackson’s condition without showing the images.

Murray, a Houston-based cardiologist, has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Authorities have accused him of giving Jackson a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol in the bedroom of his rented mansion in June 2009.

Murray’s attorneys have suggested in recent months that the singer may have given himself the fatal dose.

Opening statements are scheduled for May 9.

Richards’ daughter’s case set for dismissal

NEW YORK

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards’ daughter Theodora will get her New York City graffiti and drug case dismissed in exchange for doing two days of community service, a judge said Thursday.

Theodora Richards, a 25-year-old model, smiled but stayed mum as she left a Manhattan court. She has until late June to do the community service and won’t have to enter a plea.

Police said officers spotted her March 1 writing the letters “T” and “A,” with a heart symbol between them, in red ink on the side of a Manhattan building that houses a convent. She has a sister named Alexandra, her lawyers noted.

Theodora Richards had a small amount of marijuana and 81/2 hydrocodone pills in her purse and acknowledged she didn’t have a prescription for the hydrocodone, a narcotic pain reliever, police said in a court document.

Prosecutors agreed to the dismissal “given her lack of a criminal record and her ongoing treatment,” Manhattan assistant district attorney Kelli Clancy told the judge. At her previous court appearance, they had included a one-day visit to a drug- treatment program as a condition for a dismissal, but it’s not required now.

One of Richards’ lawyers, Edward W. Hayes, said she was free of any drug trouble.

Associated Press