THE doctor on trial in connection with the death of Michael Jackson told the star's personal assistant he suffered a "bad reaction" the day he died, a court has heard.
Dr Conrad Murray, who is accused of the involuntary manslaughter of the singer, is alleged to have made the claims in a frantic phone call to PA Michael Williams.
Mr Williams told the Los Angeles court yesterday that, during the call, Dr Murray did not indicate it was a life-threatening situation or ask him to contact emergency services.
He also claimed the doctor said there were items in the performer’s bedroom that he would not want discovered following his death.
Dr Murray denies acting with “gross negligence” by giving Jackson an overdose of the sedative propofol and botching recovery efforts.
Mr Williams told the court he received a voicemail message from the physician at around 12.13pm on June 25, 2009.
During the message, which was played to jurors, Dr Murray can be heard saying: “Call me right away, call me right away.”
The assistant claimed he then called the doctor back a couple of minutes later.
He said: “He asked ‘where are you?’ and I said ‘I’m downtown’.
“He then said ‘get here right away, Michael Jackson had a bad reaction, get somebody up here immediately’.”
Asked if he was aware it was an emergency situation, Mr Williams replied: “He said ‘Michael Jackson had a bad reaction’. When I hear that I don’t think about anything fatal. He just told me to get somebody up there, Dr Murray did not tell me to call 911.”
The witness told the court he rushed to Jackson’s LA mansion and when he arrived he saw medics and a stretcher carrying the performer’s body down the stairs.
He said it was “real frantic” but he got the star’s children ready and took them in a car to the hospital behind the ambulance.
On arrival at the hospital, the youngsters were taken to a private room as other family members and the star’s management arrived.
A short time later, Mr Williams was told Michael Jackson had died.
He claimed Dr Murray then approached him and said: “There is some cream in Michael Jackson’s room he wouldn’t want the world to know about.”
Mr Williams told jurors he then ordered security guards not to let the medic back into the house.
The court earlier heard from lawyer Kathy Jorrie, who claimed Dr Murray made repeated assurances about the “excellent condition” of the pop star’s health in the weeks before his sudden death.
Ms Jorrie, who was responsible for drawing up a contract between the physician and the singer, claimed he told her Jackson’s medical records for the past five years “would be very tiny”.
She said: “Dr Murray told me repeatedly Michael Jackson was perfectly healthy, in excellent condition.”
Promoter Paul Gongaware also told the court Jackson was “energetic” and performing well in the days before he died.
Mr Gongaware said the singer was “fully engaged” in rehearsals for his forthcoming This Is It comeback tour.
However, these assurances clashed with the testimony of Kenny Ortega, a friend of Jackson and the director of the planned concerts.
Mr Ortega claimed that just days before his death, Jackson was “lost and incoherent” and psychologically troubled.
Dr Murray has admitted giving Jackson the powerful anaesthetic as a sleeping aid but denies he is responsible for the death. His defence claim that Jackson had self-administered the drug without the doctor’s knowledge.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article