Michael Jackson: doctor charged with manslaughter

Michael Jackson - from his 1988 Liverpool show

The doctor who was treating Michael Jackson at the time of his death has been charged with the manslaughter of the legendary singer.

Jacko's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, 57, is accused of "involuntary manslaughter" after allegedly giving Jackson lethal levels of an anaesthetic while treating him for insomnia.

The doctor was due to appear at a court in California where he was expected to enter a not guilty plea, and post bail. Murray has always denied any wrongdoing.

The charge filed by the Los Angeles District Attorney says Murray "did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson."

The county coroner says Jackson was given an overdose of the hospital-strength anaesthetic propofol on 25th June 2009

In court documents, police claimed Murray told them that Jackson referred to propofol as his "milk" and that he was giving Jackson 50 mg of the drug "every night via intravenous drip (IV) to assist Jackson in sleeping."

He also claimed, according to the documents, that he suspected Jackson had formed an addiction and tried to "wean Jackson off the drug."

The documents suggested Murray had been deceptive about the extent to which he administered propofol, and that he was the subject of a homicide investigation.

The prosecution will have to show that Murray not only was negligent - something let would leave him open to being disciplined by medical authorities - but that failed in his standard of care and acted with extreme negligence.

Soon after his death Jacko's friend and producer Tarak Ben Ammar condemned doctors for taking advantage of the star's hypochondria.

Speaking last June Tarak Ben Ammar denounced the star's doctors as "criminal charlatans" who had taken advantage of him.

"He was a hypochondriac and one never really knew if he was sick because he had become surrounded by charlatan doctors who were billing him thousands and thousands of dollars worth of drugs, vitamins," Ammar said.

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