Nevada judge reviewing warrants involving doctor in Jackson case, decision pending on release

Nevada judge reviewing warrants in Jackson case

LAS VEGAS — A Nevada judge said Tuesday she’ll decide after a closed-door review with a Los Angeles prosecutor and police detective whether to release documents stemming from search warrants issued in Las Vegas in the Michael Jackson investigation.

Clark County District Court Judge Valerie Adair did not say when she would make her ruling, but it could come Wednesday if she decides to release redacted documents.

Lawyers representing The Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, TMZ Productions Inc. of Los Angeles and Stephens Media LLC, the parent company of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, are seeking the release of all search warrant documents relating to the Jackson case in Nevada.

Adair wanted to review the reasons for sealing the search warrants executed July 28 at Dr. Conrad Murray’s home, office and a storage unit in Las Vegas, and on Aug. 11 at a Las Vegas pharmacy where authorities say Murray legally bought the powerful sedative propofol.

Las Vegas attorney Donald Campbell said the state never showed why the warrants should be sealed and never gave a reason to keep them sealed.

“The sealed court records — search warrants and affidavits — involve a matter of great public concern: the investigation into the death of one of the world’s most popular entertainers,” Campbell and partner J. Colby Williams said in an application filed Oct. 7.

The 50-year-old Jackson died June 25 at a rented Los Angeles mansion. Murray, a Las Vegas cardiologist hired to be the pop star’s personal physician during a world tour, told police he gave Jackson propofol that morning to help him sleep.

The Los Angeles County coroner has ruled Jackson’s death a homicide, caused primarily by propofol and another sedative.

Murray has not been charged with a crime but is the subject of what Clark County Deputy District Attorney David Schubert termed a homicide investigation.

Schubert said in a court filing Monday that Los Angeles police have served numerous search warrants in the investigation, and Nevada wouldn’t oppose releasing records containing information already made public after raids in Houston and Los Angeles.

Records made public after those raids show Murray told investigators he gave in to Jackson’s demands for propofol to help him sleep.

Schubert, however, said those documents were released “through error and/or miscommunication.”

Authorities are concerned that releasing more warrants might harm or undermine the ongoing investigation.

Murray’s lawyer, Edward Chernoff of Houston, said Tuesday through a spokeswoman, Miranda Sevcik, that he does not oppose having additional warrant documents made public.