By Martin Kasindorf
USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — After Michael Jackson’s private doctor was sentenced to four years in jail Tuesday, the county district attorney stepped forward to discuss the significance of Conrad Murray’s punishment for involuntary manslaughter.
Steve Cooley said the case provided a lesson for the public that “the number one cause of unnatural death in the United States this year was prescription drug overdoses, surpassing traffic accidents.” A key factor, he said, is “people like Conrad Murray, the so-called Dr. Feelgood doctors who, because of their greed and selfishness, abandon ethics and put people in harm’s way.”
Murray, a 58-year-old cardiologist, got the maximum sentence for causing the singer’s drug-overdose death through criminal negligence. He was convicted Nov. 7 after a six-week jury trial.
Sheriff’s officials said Murray will serve a little less than two years.
In sentencing Murray, Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor called him “a disgrace to the medical profession” who engaged in a “continuous pattern of deceit” and showed no remorse.
Pastor focused on a cellphone recording Murray made of a drugged Jackson six weeks before his death, slurring his speech as he talked of plans for a London concert series. Pastor suggested that if Murray and Jackson had a falling-out, Murray might have given it to a “media organization.”
Pastor emphasized Murray’s statements in a British TV documentary that he didn’t feel guilty because he did “nothing wrong” and that he felt betrayed by Jackson. “Yikes! Talk about blaming the victim,” Pastor said.
Jackson died June 25, 2009, of an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol. Prosecutor David Walgren argued that Murray violated medical standards in administering propofol as a sleep aid without proper monitoring and resuscitation equipment. Asking Pastor for the maximum sentence, Walgren cited Murray’s 20-minute delay in calling 911 after Jackson stopped breathing and said Murray lied to paramedics, ER doctors and police about what drugs he had given Jackson.
Prosecutors asked Pastor to order Murray to pay $101.8 million in restitution to Jackson’s estate and his three children, representing $100 million in projected earnings from the London concerts and $1.8 million in funeral and memorial service expenses. Pastor set a hearing for Jan. 23.
Under a recent change in state law, Murray will serve his time in a Los Angeles County jail rather than a state penitentiary. Cooley said his office will ask Pastor to reconsider because prisoners are being released early to relieve crowding.
California, Nevada and Texas medical authorities have said they will investigate whether Murray’s licenses to practice should be revoked. His California license has been suspended.
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