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Judge Rips into Michael Jackson Doctor in Trial Finale
November 30, 2011

The judge who oversaw the trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray, pictured, finally let rip at the medic on Tuesday, branding him a greedy and dangerous liar in a dramatic finale to the long-awaited case. (AFP Photo) The judge who oversaw the trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray, pictured, finally let rip at the medic on Tuesday, branding him a greedy and dangerous liar in a dramatic finale to the long-awaited case. (AFP Photo)
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Los Angeles. The judge who oversaw the trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray finally let rip at the medic on Tuesday, branding him a greedy and dangerous liar in a dramatic finale to the long-awaited case.

As he jailed the medic for a maximum four years, the usually genial judge Michael Pastor alleged that Murray recorded a heavily-drugged Jackson speaking weeks before his death as an “insurance policy” to use against him if needed.

Pastor, who won praise for his deft handling of the six-week trial, also blasted Murray for cooperating in a TV documentary partly made during the trial, in which he said he did not feel guilty over the 2009 death.

“Yipes! Talk about blaming the victim. Not only isn’t there any remorse, there’s umbrage and outrage on the part of Dr Murray against the decedent,” he said, referring to a claim that Jackson demanded the drug which killed him.

Pastor’s low view of Murray was made clear shortly after a seven-man, five-woman jury found him guilty on November 7, when he said the medic was a danger to the public and ordered him handcuffed and remanded in custody.

In a no-holds barred 30-minute summing up Tuesday shortly before passing sentence, Pastor notably called Murray’s treatment of the King of Pop a “medical experiment” and “horrible medicine.”

“Dr Murray repeatedly lied, engaged in deceitful misconduct, and endeavored to cover up his transgressions,” he said, accusing the medic of “unconscionable lies” to 911 paramedics by not telling them all the drugs he had given Jackson.

“He had absolutely no sense of remorse... and is, and remains dangerous,” he added. “I believe he’s a danger to the community,” he said, calling Murray “a disgrace to the medical profession.”

Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for having given Jackson the anesthetic propofol nightly for some two months before his death, and on the day he died, June 25, 2009.

“Mr Jackson was an experiment. The fact that he participated in it does not excuse or lessen the blame of Dr Murray who simply could have walked away and said no as countless others did.

“Dr Murray was intrigued by the prospect and he engaged in this money-for-medicine madness that is simply not going to be tolerated by me,” he added.

Pastor said that, of all the evidence heard at the trial, the most intriguing was the audio recording of a heavily-slurring Jackson, made on Murray’s iPhone during a conversation with the star only weeks before he died.

“That tape-recording was Dr Murray’s insurance policy... it was designed to record his patient surreptitiously at that patient’s most vulnerable point,” he said.

“I can’t help but wonder, that if there had been some conflict between Michael Jackson and Dr Murray at a later point in time... what value would be placed on that tape recording, if the choice were to release that recording to a media organization to be used against Michael Jackson.”

One of Murray’s lawyers, Michael Flanagan, said after sentencing that he was not surprised by the maximum jail term handed down by Pastor, who he said had been clearly “hostile” to the medic.

“I’ve noticed it for almost two years... this judge has been angry with us the entire time,” he said.

But he poured scorn on the claim that 58-year-old Murray, an experienced cardiologist whose medical record was unblemished before he began treating Jackson two months before his death, was a danger to the public.

“He could have bolted out of those courtroom doors and run down, punched that elevator and within five minutes got to the bottom floor and he could have gone out and injected a bunch of people with propofol,” he said, sarcastically.

“Do you really think he was a danger? He’s led 56 years of exemplary life,” he asked reporters, shortly after Murray was led back to the cells.

Agence France-Presse