Michael Jackson: Arrest May Put Pop Star On Trial
Attorney Mark Geragos on Larry King
By Art Harris, The Bald Truth (c) artharris.com, all rights reserved
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 14–With an unsealed search warrant revealing Thursday that Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray, legally ordered the powerful anesthetic propofol from a Las Vegas pharmacy–a drug other medical professionals had deneid him that’s at the heart of the manslaughter investigation into the pop star’s death, we met up with LA super lawyer Mark Geragos, an old friend who often works his legal magic for celebrity clients, and filed this report for E! News
—————
LA criminal lawyer Mark Geragos tells E! he turned down a request to consider representing Dr. Conrad Murray if the doctor is ever charged with manslaughter, or any other crime in California, for his possible role in the death of a former celebrity client, Michael Jackson.
“I’ve been approached,” says Geragos, “but clearly I have a conflict of interest… I represented Michael and I would not want to be in a position, where I was deprecating Michael in any way, shape or form….”
We left a message for Dr. Murray’s criminal lawyer in Houston, Ed Chernoff, but his spokeswoman could not be reached for comment about any such feeler, or what Geragos believes could be part of an aggressive Murray defense strategy—putting Jackson, the dead celebrity, on trial.
“Ultimately, that may be…what the defense is, to say things about Michael I’m just not going to say,” said Geragos. “Whatever is required by somebody who is going to defend the doctor, is not something I can do ethically.”
But if charges are ever filed, Geragos predicts it will be more likely for murder, not manslaughter. “It’s one of the most bizarre things,” he says. “It’s literally easier if you look at jury instructions, to get a jury to convict on second degree (murder) than involuntary manslaughter.”
A high profile criminal lawyer and frequent guest on Larry King Live, Geragos has defended actress Wynona Ryder for shoplifting, Scott Peterson for double murder – as well as Jackson when the pop star was initially charged (and later acquitted) of molestation charges in 2005 — and helped Jackson prove he was a fit parent when Los Angeles child welfare workers put him under the microscope.
At the time, Geragos tells E he spent a lot of time at home with Jackson and his three children “when no one was watching…”
“What the world saw at the memorial, I saw four years ago,” he says, hanging out with Paris and Prince Michael more often than Blanket who “was really too young for me to interact with.” As for the older kids, Paris and Prince Michael were “always laughing and having fun. and Paris was wise beyond her years…She hasn’t missed a beat since.”
He believes the children are in good hands with Jackson’s mother as guardian, even as authorities appear to be closing in on the doctor who was tending him when he died. According to a search warrant for the Las Vegas pharmacy that that was unsealed Thursday, Dr. Murray legally bought the powerful anesthetic propofol from Applied Pharmacy Services in Sin City, where his home was recently raided for records near the Red Rock Country Club.
Murray reportedly administered propofol to Jackson hours before he died – and a source close to the investigation tells E that yet to be released toxicology reports show Jackson had at least three tranquilizers, including Xanex, in his system as well.
To counter any damaging toxicology reports, Geragos says he expects Murray’s lawyers to put Jackson on trial for admitted drug addictions, doctor shopping for prescriptions police say he sought under one of 19 aliases– and other “weirdness.”
Murray has not been named as a suspect and his lawyer insists he gave Jackson no drug that would have killed him.
But Geragos says investigators are now trying to account for any drugs found in Jackson’s body by tracking them back to prescriptions written by any number of doctors whose records have been seized to rule them in or out.
If multiple drugs are found, he suspects the coroner has delayed releasing the autopsy report until he learns more about what was going on in “Jackson’s life from LAPD investigators. before he says the cause of death is A, B and C, he wants to rule out D, E and F…So they are crossing their T’s and dotting their I’s.”
He predicts someone will be “blamed,” but urges no rush to judgment until all the evidence is in. Then expect wrongful death suits from the family, he says, to try to collect from any deep pocket who can be tied to the death.
“I can imagine 10 different lawsuits coming out of this,” says Geragos. “Whether it’s against doctors, whether it’s the Jackson’s against AEG, or AEG (promoters) against the Estate…Anytime you’ve got the kind of money that’s at stake here, there will be lawyers and where there’s lawyers, there’s lawsuits.”
But any civil suit, he says, would likely only go forward after a criminal trial, so civil lawyers can “piggyback” on the detailed and expensive police investigation. That’s what happened with O.J. Simpson, acquitted of double murder but convicted in a civil suit.
As for other celebrity drug cases, he sees no comparison between Jackson and Anna Nicole Smith’s accidental overdose.
“Take a look at all the tapes of Anna Nicole prior to her death and then take a look at the tapes of Michael performing 18 hours before,” says Geragos, who spoke briefly to Jackson after his 2005 trial in Santa Maria. “He looked fit…I’m only a year older. I couldn’t dance like that at 20, let alone half that well…he looked like he was in pretty good shape to me.”
We asked the attorney, natty in his GQ blue shirt and white collar, if he’d ever learned any dance moves from his former client when they were together.
“No, that’s why I’m practicing law,” said Geragos, who hopes people will remember his former client for “all the greatness…and forget all the weirdness.”
Then he was off with a wave, to a nearby Pasadena cigar shop, Cigars by Chivas, where an NBC crew had set up to tape an interview for the Today Show scheduled to air Friday with the celebrity lawyer.
NBC TODAY SHOW ON DR MURRAY AUG 13
