Feds Raid Michael Jackson's Doctor Conrad Murray's Home and Office

Net tightens around Dr. Conrad Murray who allegedly gave Jackson drugs.

ByABC News
July 27, 2009, 6:55 PM

July 28, 2009 -- Federal and local investigators searchedthe Las Vegas home and offices of Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's physician, who authorities believe may have injected the singer with a lethal dose of anesthesia the day he died, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Murray has become the primary focus of the inquest into Jackson's June 25 death. Investigators believe Murray injected the pop icon with propofol around midnight and left him unattended, according to The Associated Press.

Murray topped a shortlist of doctors who have been questioned by police in the weeks since the singer's death because they are believed to have supplied Jackson with countless prescription drugs over the years.

DEA agents and local police were at the scene of the raid on Murray's home. According to Murray's attorney Ed Chertoff, the doctor was at home at the time and assisted investigators in their search.

Murray, whose Houston office was raided by local and federal authorities last week, has already been named in court papers as the subject of a manslaughter investigation.

"This doctor is in serious trouble," criminal defense attorney Roy Black told "Good Morning America" today.

New details have emerged about the scene paramedics discovered on the afternoon they were called to Jackson's Los Angeles rental home.

They reportedly found a chaotic scene inside the singer's bedroom, with clothes strewn around the stifling hot room, handwritten notes papering the walls and a porcelain doll on his bed.

Toxicology reports are due to be released this week, and it seems the net is tightening on Murray, who remains secluded in his Las Vegas home.

According to a statement from the LAPD, cops from Los Angeles and Las Vegas joined the DEA in their search of Murray's properties.

"Today July 28th, detectives assigned to robbery homicide division with the assistance of agents from the United States Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration and Las Vegas Metro Police served search warrants at a medical facility and a residence in Las Vegas, Nevada," the statement read.

"The nature of the search warrants or the material sought in the search of these two locations will not be commented on. However, the search warrants were served in conjunction with the ongoing investigation into the death of Michael Jackson."

ABC News has confirmed Jackson's body had track marks on it, consistent with IV drug use, and authorities said he was addicted to the painkillers OxyContin and Demerol.

"Everyone needs to take a breath and wait for these long-delayed toxicology results," Murray's lawyer, Ed Chernoff, said in a statement released Monday night. "Things tend to shake out when all the facts are made known, and I'm sure that will happen here as well."

But Chernoff has already admitted that Murray didn't call 911 for 30 minutes after he found Jackson unresponsive. And the doctor, who had been hired to monitor Jackson for his planned "This Is It" tour, initially performed CPR while Jackson was lying on a bed, not on a hard surface as is proper protocol.

Black told "Good Morning America" that if Murray is charged it will be up to his defense to prove there was a sound medical reason why he prescribed and administered the off-label use of a drug that is meant for use in the operating room.

"They're going to say there's not legitimate reason to prescribe this drug for use in the home," he said. "It certainly should not be used for insomnia."

An official close to the investigation told The Associated Press that Jackson relied on propofol like an alarm clock, instructing doctors to stop the IV when he wanted to wake up. It's a drug authorities believe he may have been using for two years.

An official close to the investigation told The Associated Press that Jackson relied on propofol like an alarm clock, instructing doctors to stop the IV when he wanted to wake up. It's a drug authorities believe he may have been using for two years.

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