Authorities searching Murray’s cardiology clinic had a search warrant indicating that the pop star’s death was being investigated as a manslaughter.
Conrad Murray was with Jackson in his final moments June 25 at the singer's rented mansion in Los Angeles and accompanied him to the hospital. He has cooperated with investigators.
Investigators from L.A. and Houston, as well as DEA agents, seize documents and computer files from Acres Home Heart and Vascular Institute, a cardiology clinic run by Dr. Conrad Murray.
Dozens of police and federal agents descended on the Houston clinic of Michael Jackson's doctor Wednesday in what his lawyer said was a search for evidence of manslaughter, thrusting the doctor back under suspicion in the singer's death.
Conrad Murray was with Jackson in his final moments June 25 at the singer's rented mansion in Los Angeles and accompanied him to the hospital. He has cooperated with investigators.
"The search warrant authorized law enforcement to search for and seize items, including documents, they believed constituted evidence of the offense of manslaughter," said the doctor's lawyer, Edward Chernoff, in a statement.
Murray, whose main practice and residence are in Las Vegas, was not present for the 3 1/2 -hour search by officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division and the Houston Police Department. DEA spokeswoman Violet Szeleczky said investigators went to the Acres Home Heart and Vascular Institute, a cardiology clinic Murray opened in 2006, in search of records, but she declined to elaborate.
A DEA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the warrant mentioned the anesthetic propofol. Police removed large quantities of the powerful drug from Jackson's Holmby Hills mansion, and DEA agents have been working with the manufacturer to trace the source of a specific lot number of the drug.
Propofol was not found in Murray's office, a source familiar with the search said. Investigators took Murray's Rolodex, business cards, information about his use of FedEx, e-mails he had received from a former employee, receipts for a storage unit and cellphone and pamphlets advertising a nearby sleep clinic, the source said. Officers took a folder containing a biography of Murray and a photocopy of a picture of him, the source said.
Murray, a 51-year-old cardiologist, opened the Houston clinic three years ago in honor of his father, a physician who had worked in the poor, predominantly black neighborhood for decades.
Murray traveled to Houston twice a month to see patients until May, when he suspended his practice to work full-time for Jackson, according to a biography provided by his lawyer.
Although Murray had been hired to care for Jackson at a monthly salary of $150,000, the performer was also seeing a number of other physicians, and the L.A. County coroner's office has subpoenaed medical records from several physicians.
The spotlight on Murray, however, has been the most intense because he was with Jackson at his home when the singer went into cardiac arrest.
USC law professor Jean Rosenbluth, a former federal prosecutor, said the reference to manslaughter in the search warrant provides some insight into detectives' interpretation of the evidence but ultimately may be irrelevant.
"You get a search warrant because you are investigating the possible commission of a crime, but all of this is just at the investigatory stage. All the time there are investigations where no one is charged with a crime in the end," she said.
She said that when the deceased is a global icon, "they are not going to leave any stones unturned."
"With the whole world watching they would want every 't' crossed and every 'i' dotted," she said.
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