Defence grills Jackson coroner’s aide

A CORONER’S investigator’s notes and recollections of items found in Michael Jackson’s bedroom after he died were called into question yesterday by the defence attorney for the doctor charged over the singer’s death.

But Elissa Fleak denied defence attorney Ed Chernoff’s contention she had made mistakes in preparing reports on the death.

Mr Chernoff said during cross-examination that she didn’t note that she had found a bottle of propofol inside an intravenous bag until March 2011, nearly two years after the singer’s death, questioning whether she had heard that detail from testimony by bodyguard Alberto Alvarez, who told jurors he saw the bottle inside the saline bag before followed the instructions of Dr Conrad Murray to pack it up.

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Alvarez told jurors last week that 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.

Ms Fleak also testified she accidentally touched a syringe in Jackson’s bedroom, leaving a thumbprint.

Murray has denied involuntary manslaughter. Authorities contend the doctor gave Jackson a lethal dose of the powerful anaesthetic propofol and other sedatives in Jackson’s bedroom on June 25, 2009. Murray’s lawyers say Jackson gave himself the fatal dose.

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The court on Wednesday heard a recording of Jackson, made six weeks before his death, in which the slurring singer, clearly under the influence of sedatives, proclaimed his intent to leave a performance legacy bigger than Elvis or the Beatles, and building a fabulous hospital for children with proceeds from his This Is It comeback.

“Elvis didn’t do it. Beatles didn’t do it. We have to be phenomenal,” Jackson is heard saying, later adding: “My performance will be up there helping my children and always be my dream.”

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