Charges to be filed in Jackson’s death

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office will file a criminal case against Dr. Conrad Murray on Monday, capping an eight-month police investigation into Michael Jackson’s death and ending days of intense speculation about when the singer’s personal physician would be charged, authorities said.

Official confirmation of an impending criminal prosecution in the Jackson matter came Friday in a news release in which the district attorney’s office took the unusual step of announcing charges in advance. The move seemed designed to quell temporarily a media frenzy that had drawn a hundred reporters and a fleet of television trucks to a courthouse near Los Angeles’ airport Friday morning in anticipation of imminent charges.

The statement from prosecutors said a case pertaining to Jackson’s death will be filed at that courthouse, but did not name Murray or specify the charges. Numerous sources with knowledge of the case said the cardiologist will be charged with involuntary manslaughter for administering the combination of sedatives and anesthetic blamed in the singer’s June death.

Murray acknowledged to police giving Jackson an intravenous dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol shortly before his death, according to court documents. The drug is intended for use in operating rooms by trained anesthesiologists. Murray told police that the singer had a long history of using the drug to sleep and he was trying to wean him from it the week he died, the documents state.