The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office is looking into whether county coroner's office employees may have illegally leaked or sold private information from the Michael Jackson death investigation.
"We are not investigating the leak at the coroner's office," sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. "We are doing a preliminary inquiry to see if an investigation is warranted in the leaking of information. If anything rises to the level of a criminal act then an investigation will ensue. Right now it has to do with inappropriate behavior that may not be criminal."
The news comes after reports that employees improperly viewed Jackson's death certificate and accessed sensitive computers.
It also follows several other developments related to Michael Jackson's June 25 death and its aftermath.
Search warrants made public Thursday suggested Dr. Conrad Murray, the personal physician who was with Michael Jackson at his California rental home when the singer died last month, is a specific target of a police manslaughter investigation. Searches of Murray's office and a storage facility yielded drugs, documents and computer hard drives.
This weekend, a former Jackson financial advisor, Dr. Tohme Tohme, said he returned $5.5 million Jackson had given to him to hold in "secret" so it eventually could be used to purchase a house.
Administrators of Jackson's estate said they are working on deals that potentially could help bring in tens of millions dollars more for Jackson's heirs, according to court records.
The records add that Jackson's mother and his three kids, for whom she is legal guardian, are asking for a "family allowance" to help with living expenses.
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