Defence attacks Jackson coroner’s investigation

A DEFENCE attorney yesterday attacked the notes and recollections of a coroner’s investigator who collected medication and items from the bedroom of Michael Jackson after he died.

Ed Chernoff, lead attorney for defendant Dr Conrad Murray, questioned whether a “substantial number of mistakes” had been made during the coroner’s inquiry into Jackson’s death in June 2009.

Chernoff said during cross-examination that investigator Elissa Fleak did not note that she had found a bottle of propofol inside an IV bag until March 2011, nearly two years after the singer’s death.

Fleak denied doing anything wrong, but acknowledged she updated her notes with the key detail just a few months ago and destroyed her original notes from the crime scene.

The lawyer questioned whether she heard the detail in testimony by bodyguard Alberto Alvarez, who testified during a preliminary hearing in January that he saw the bottle inside the IV bag. He repeated the detail for jurors last week and said Murray told him to put the IV bag into another bag before calling emergency services.

The bag filled with propofol, sedatives and other medication was found during a search of Jackson’s closet four days after his death. The search was prompted by Murray’s interview with police on June 27, 2009.

Authorities say Jackson died of acute propofol intoxication combined with other sedatives administered by Murray. Defence attorneys have an alternate theory: the King of Pop gave himself the fatal dose when the cardiologist left the singer’s bedroom.

Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Fleak also acknowledged yesterday she accidentally handled a syringe found on the floor of Jackson’s bedroom, leaving a thumbprint. In addition, she said she moved a vial of medication from the floor to get a better photograph of an empty bottle of propofol that was next to Jackson’s bed.

Fleak is one of the first investigators to testify in the case.