- [June] Hello, and welcome
to "The Doc Exchange", a Real Stories podcast in partnership with The Grierson Trust. Every week, I'll ask a new
filmmaker or filmmaking team about three documentaries, connected by a single theme, that have made a meaningful impression on their work and life. (mysterious music) (somber suspenseful music) (crowd cheers) - [Crowd] Michael, Michael! (suspenseful music builds) (phone rings) - [Dispatcher] Paramedics
33, what is your emergency? - [Alberto] Yes sir, I need an ambulance as soon as possible. Sir, we have a gentleman
here that needs help and he's stopped breathing. (suspenseful music continues) - You're talking about
Michael Jackson, here. It was absolutely huge. - There was a lot of
pressure to get it right. - This isn't a man who should have died. (climactic music) - [Alberto] He's not breathing yet. He's not breathing and
we're trying to pump him, but he's not breathing sir--
- Okay, okay. How old is he? - [Alberto] He's 50 years old, sir. - [Dispatcher] 50? Okay. He's unconscious, he's not breathing-- - Yes, he's not breathing--
- When we were dispatched to a 50-year-old male, cardiac arrest, we think, "This is a viable patient. This is someone, if we
get to in a timely manner, we can save." And then when I enter
this room, opulent room, with medical equipment in it, I realize there's something unusual here. What 50-year-old male would be laying in bed at
noon with medical equipment? We're not looking at the
patient at that moment. Till my partner did, he looked
up and whispered the name, "(whispers) Michael Jackson." (crowd cheers)
When I realized who it was, I was surprised. We had no idea he was there. None of us had any idea who
was living in our neighborhood. - [Dispatcher] Did anybody
witness what happened? - [Alberto] No, just the doctor, sir. - There was a man with our patient who identified himself as the doctor, and as such, I immediately
asked him some information, what had happened, how long
has this been going on? And he told me then that
it had just happened. This was a patient, to me, that it seemed that he
had not just passed away, that some time had gone by
before we were notified. And in fact, later, when
you're reflecting on this call, the days, the weeks,
the months afterwards, one of the greatest
regrets that all of us had is that we had not been called sooner. (intense dramatic music) When we came outside, that's when we became aware
of a very large presence. We were trying to back out on the street only to be hindered by
many, many cameramen putting their lenses
against the glass windows of the moving ambulance. (intense music continues) (people clamoring)
- Michael, Michael! - People seem to forget, or don't realize, about this investigation, it was a death investigation. It really wasn't a crime at the time. - From the information that I had, it was probably an accident or a natural, and we would find out that he had some preexisting
medical condition. And then we would be done. (people clamor)
- Just look at what we knew in the first hours of this; taken to the hospital,
there wasn't a bloody knife, there wasn't a smoking gun. There was nothing on the
surface that would lead anyone to believe anything
nefarious had occurred. - When I arrived at the
hospital, Dr. Murray was gone. So he was no longer there at the scene. - We're in a bit of a panic then, the one person that was in a room with him at the time that everything happened is no longer at the hospital. - There were several attempts right away to get ahold of Dr. Murray that were negative, that
they were going to voicemail. (car idling)
- You have family members, Jackson family members, coming in, and people wanting some questions
answered, as well as us. - It is believed he suffered
cardiac arrest in his home. A team of doctors, including emergency
physicians and cardiologists, attempted to resuscitate him. - The emergency room physician, they believed it was a heart attack, partly because of what
Mr. Murray had told them. Never told them anything about any other narcotics or anything. They just believed he
had had a heart attack and stopped breathing. (foreboding music) So here we are at the Carolwood house. (foreboding music continues) That day, by the time I got here, we had to block off
this side of the street, the entrance side of the street, and it was full of media vans. We had never seen anything like it, I had never seen anything like it. (eerie suspenseful music) There was the room where Dr.
Murray treated Mr. Jackson, and then there was a locked room, which was Mr. Jackson's bedroom. (suspenseful music continues) There's a fireplace in the
room and it was roaring. So the room was very, very hot. There were, like, post-it note, or pieces of paper,
taped all over the room on mirrors, on doors, with little slogans or phrases. I don't know if they
were lyrics or thoughts, or some of them seemed like poems. The bedroom was, it was a mess. In the room where he was being treated, it did not seem like a
room fit for any type of medical treatment. Not even like a home
makeshift medical suite. It was just bare bones. - I just remember going in
there and there's an IV stand and a saline bag and just
various medications strewn about. (suspenseful music continues) - There was a computer on the bed. There was a lifelike doll on the bed. And, it was kind of, like, advertisements of pictures with babies. Everybody knew about the allegations that had been leveled against
Mr. Jackson over the years. One of the things, when I
saw the laptop on the bed, "Do I go into it?" But, you have to realize the type
of case I was investigating. - When you get, you know,
ahold of an investigation, you have to kind of whittle out what is and what isn't. (suspenseful music continues) - It's like with any case, you don't allow whatever
the victim was into prior to his death. Your investigation is
focused on, how did he die? And, who was responsible for it? (suspenseful music continues) - In the room where he was being treated, a bottle of propofol
(music booms) had fallen on the ground and rolled under this moving nightstand. I didn't know what it did. That ended up being a huge deal later. (music intensifies) I had no medical background whatsoever. My neighbor was a doctor. So I went to my neighbor
and I asked him about it. And my neighbor was the
one who got it started of, "Whoa, what is this doing here? This is only used in surgeries. This is used to put people under." (ominous music)
(waves lapping) We had put it out in the press that we were looking for Dr. Murray. We still didn't think that there was anything criminal going on. The only thing that we knew
was this surgery drug was at the location and it
shouldn't have been there. The next day, get a call, his
attorney has been in contact. He consents to an interview. So our plan was to let him talk. And that's what we did. (eerie music)
- So how long have you been a doctor for Mr. Jackson? (pages turning)
- I first started attending to him in 2006. - [Detective Martinez] And
it was continuous, 2006 on? - No, well, no--
- Or on and off? - Off and on, intermittent.
- Okay. We didn't know what happened. We didn't want to assume anything. And we wanted to give
the doctor an opportunity to dig his own hole, if that was the case. So it's just you and Michael? - Usually that's how it is.
- Okay, and this night it was just you and Michael?
- Just myself and him. - And he proceeded to tell us that, you know, Michael just couldn't sleep. He was just so amped up
about this upcoming concert. He, by nature, had a hard time sleeping. - He gave him some drugs. - Some Valium, lorazepam, and diazepam and a few others, to try and calm Michael,
to try and get him to rest, to fall asleep, and nothing works. - [Dr. Murray] He was wide awake. I said, "Do you feel a little bit drowsy? Do you think your eyes are
telling you you want to sleep?" He said, "No." - Dr. Murray says, you know, "After trying
all these various things, nothing was working, and it's in the early morning
hours of the next day, and so finally I just
gave Michael his milk." - [Dr. Murray] At that time he said, "I'd like to have some milk." - [Detective Martinez] Milk? - Hot, cold milk, what
are we talking about? He says, "Oh, well, it's a medication." "Does the medication have a name?" He says, "Well, it's propofol." And this was, again, a big
revelation during this interview, that propofol is mentioned. - [Detective Smith] And
what is this propofol? - [Dr. Murray] It is a sedative that could also be used for anesthesia. (music intensifies) - He freely admits that for
months he's been using this to help Mr. Jackson sleep. - [Detective Smith] Okay,
you've administered it more than 10 times. - [Dr. Murray] Yes. - [Detective Smith] More than 20 times? - [Dr. Murray] 30 days a month, roughly. Every day. - Oh, so it's, like, a daily--
- A daily. - In my head, I was
thinking "What the heck?" To drug someone to sleep,
even with their permission, the way that he did. I didn't think it was legal. - [Dr. Murray] I monitored,
I sat there and I'd watch him for long enough period that
I felt was comfortable. - He gave him propofol and then goes to the bathroom, comes back, Mr. Jackson's not breathing. - [Dr. Murray] So I started
immediately to perform CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. - He goes into a panic. He tries CPR while Michael is on the bed. He summons Alberto Alvarez,
the head of security. And ultimately Alberto Alvarez
is the one that calls 911. (ominous music) - When we reviewed the
CCTV at the mansion, we saw that he carried in a bag with him. And also the family and
the security staff told us he would always carry a bag with him. When he went to the hospital, he did not have the bag with him. - The biggest aha moment was when I had asked Dr.
Murray where his bags were. - [Detective Smith] Where's your bag where those syringes would be at now? - [Mr. Chernoff] Oh, really? - [Dr. Murray] I don't have them. - [Mr. Chernoff] I
thought you left it there. - He was assuming that we had it. - "You haven't got my bags?" Once he realized we didn't have that, he's like, "Uh!" You know, deer in the
headlights look, if you will. - You know, legally we
can search the areas that are relevant. It wasn't in the room that was relevant. - [Dr. Murray] If you walk
into the dressing room and you turn right,
with the high level top, the bags are right there
with the items in it. - You know, in those moments,
people aren't their sharpest. They're not thinking the best. So it's our job to take
those little mistakes that people make and
build a case off them. (suspenseful music) First thing Monday
morning, went to the house, went to where Dr. Murray had
said the medical bag was, different room, in a closet, in a cubby above the closet,
and recovered the bag. - We recovered a treasure
trove of evidence from Murray's doctor's bag. - We found a bunch of more
medicines that he had used, like propofol and lidocaine. One of the other things that we found was we found all the waste,
all the trash, the needles, the empty bottles, the stuff that, when
we went into the room, should have been laying around. So we knew that sometime
during this medical emergency, Dr. Murray had stopped either giving CPR, or had waited to give CPR,
and cleaned up everything. So we're thinking, "What could
be the reasons for that?" - Within 48 hours, it appeared that it was a
suspicious death in the sense that there was something
more than just an overdose. (upbeat suspenseful music) - If your goal is to preserve
the life of the person that you're giving CPR to, why would you pause that to pick up trash unless you were trying to hide something? (music intensifies)
If he wouldn't have told us where it was, or if he would
have taken it with him, we wouldn't have had it, we
would have lost that element of the hiding, the trying to cover up. - We were now looking at
Murray, he was behind the death. (solemn dramatic music) (car whooshes)
(somber music) - Not only do you have to do
what you can for the victim, but you also have to take
into account the organization. - You're donning a uniform that has, it's been a part of history, and growing up with the
stories that you'd heard from the Manson cases. You know, Marilyn Monroe. All these notorious cases that you'd seen and heard about growing up were part of LAPD. - Historically, our department
had not had very much success on high profile cases. We had lost the O.J. case. Everybody remembers the Bronco chase. Ourselves and the DA's office allowed him to turn himself in, and
it turned into a pursuit and a hostage situation, just ridiculous. - And even though you have
this overwhelming amount of evidence to secure a
conviction, you don't get it. - [Juror] We the jury in
the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal
James Simpson not guilty-- - Yeah!
- Of the crime of murder, a felony upon Nicole Brown
Simpson, a human being, as charged in count
one of the information. - For us working the cases, we didn't want to make the same
mistakes that had been made in the department's memory
and in the public memory. There was a lot of
pressure to get it right. (somber music intensifies) Me, personally, I thought that
it was going to be horrible. (people clamoring)
(person vocalizing) The public scrutiny, the second guessing. - This is kinda like when, the generation when
Kennedy was assassinated. I now will remember that
I was in Times Square, you know, when I found out that
Michael Jackson passed away. - There was a lot more
pressure, if you will. There was a lot of eyes on us, obviously, to get the job done. It was daunting at times. (suspenseful music) When I showed up to go into the autopsy, you know, they had a little cover over the window, and they're looking to
make sure it's just me and no one else is around, and they open the door and
they usher me in right away and close the door and lock it! And I'm like, "Oh my gosh," you know? "We're in a controlled environment. This is your office, this
is a coroner's office, so what's the problem?" Everything had been cleared out of there. I remember it being
close to five hours long. It was extraordinarily long. The thing that was odd that I found myself
periodically looking at was you know, his head, his scalp, because whenever he's out in
public, he's wearing a wig. (upbeat suspenseful music) Looking at his scalp and
the top of his head being, you know, severely scarred. Hardly any hair at all on the sides to what he would look like in
public with the flowing hair. That was, you know, a bit different. Not defending his use of
prescription medicine by any means, but, you know, when you
experience something like that, it kinda opens up the door for pain killers and whatever
else that may lead to. But other than that, it truly just, "Let's do
this and get it done," yeah. - Blood is drawn, and then that blood is
sent to a toxicology unit. So, the initial autopsy
didn't show much, you know? Nothing much that you wouldn't be shocked a 50-year-old body would have. He was relatively healthy. You know? This isn't a man who should have died. - [Reporter] While an official
cause of death has yet to be determined, the
coroner's office says it has everything needed to make a ruling on why Jackson died.
- Michael, Michael! - And we're still waiting
for the toxicology reports and the further, the
completion of all the reports that are coming in. - When the body was removed--
- It was weeks went by, and we kept asking, "When are we going to
hear from toxicology? When are we gonna hear?" - We had a death, but we didn't
have a criminal death yet. (upbeat rhythmic music) - [Female Reporter] It's official, Michael Jackson's death was a homicide. (people cheer)
The LA County coroner's office says the cause of death
was an acute intoxication from the anesthetic propofol. - Once the toxicology report came back, it gave us a lot more power
behind our investigation. Other than going on a hunch,
now we're going on facts. - And then it became the idea of, how bad? That was the big question. How bad is this? - Ultimately, the toxicology results, you had those over here, and you have Dr. Murray's statement here, and it just wasn't jiving. There was just no way that what he said was factual to what they found out. Had enough propofol in
him to drop a rhinoceros. - He could no longer breathe on his own, and Murray had not set up an environment to allow for artificial
means of breathing, which is reckless, gross negligence. (slow solemn music) - This is a bottle that people pee into when they're bedridden. This was found at the
bedside, and it was full. He used the restroom without
having to get out of bed. What it made us think was that he was completely incapacitated, that someone was caring
for him to that extent. Seeing things like this, I realized that he wasn't being helped to fall asleep, he was being kept under, as a consequence, not having
the strength or the ability to get up and go to the restroom, just take care of business,
and continue sleeping. (people clamoring)
- Life for the doctor. - [Crowd] (yells) Justice for Michael! Justice for Michael! Justice for Michael--
- What we did is, we took our case, and this
included all of our interviews, all of our statements,
and most significantly the toxicology reports,
and the autopsy reports. We had 11 physicians in, I think, five or six
different specialties review this material, and were
asked to render an opinion. - As I was looking for doctors to evaluate the level of care,
I came across Dr. Shafer. He was instrumental in
developing propofol. - I demonstrated that in
statement after statement after statement in Conrad
Murray's interview, what he said made no
sense, it was not possible. He just asserted things
that were not true. - You would need a continuous
drip of the propofol, and not a shot, not an injection, like Dr. Murray had said he had used. It wears off really quickly. (suspenseful music)
(computer keys click) - So what I'm simulating right here is the dose that Conrad Murray claims was available to Michael Jackson, and that the defense claimed (chuckles) resulted in Michael Jackson's death; a dose of just 25
milligrams, 2.5 cc's of drug, which is ridiculous. It only lasts for a few seconds, and this was the whole
point of the mathematics that I presented. And the heart of course keeps pumping. So, we know that there was 100 cc vial hanging over Michael Jackson. Knowing it was empty,
we can see exactly how, over a period of about 30 to 40 minutes, it enters into a dose
that would be associated with a lethal concentration of drug in a patient who wasn't
being looked after, because they're really under
pretty deep general anesthesia at that point in time. And this corresponds to having
an empty 100 mil vile hanging over Michael Jackson's head. And I thought, "Oh my God, this is it. This is the smoking gun. This is actually the bottle of propofol that killed Michael Jackson." (eerie music) - What we discovered was one of the IV bags had been emptied. One of the propofol bottles
had been upside down inside of the bag. - There's a bottle of
propofol inside an IV bag? I mean, one of the
single weirdest details. - There was a big tear, a pike, or a needle, that is
large would have broken the top of the propofol bottle so that
it could drip freely down. - Basically Murray was
using the saline bag to hang the bottle of
propofol from the stand, but also, I think, to hide it, because he didn't want anybody to know he was using propofol. (intense ominous music) So to get an idea of
just how crazy this is, the anesthetic drugs are all dangerous. There is really no access outside
of the healthcare setting. We have pumps that are set up,
they're precisely calibrated, and we precisely control the dose. He had an IV line, like,
coming down from here, and it's got a little
roller clamp on the side, you just adjust this little roller clamp. It's a gravity fed system. There's very little control
on the rate, on the drug, and that's what he was using. It's insane! Nobody trained in propofol administration would not precisely
control the infusion rate. Nobody trained in the use of propofol would ever walk away from a patient who is receiving propofol
as a continuous infusion. Physicians with no training in anesthesia have no business giving propofol. - So at that point we knew
this was not an honest mistake, but that this was on purpose, bad medicine. - An MD degree is not a license to do whatever
the hell you want to do, and just think you can get away with it. (upbeat dramatic music)
(waves crashing) - One of the challenges in the investigation was
the uncooperative witnesses. And one of those was
Dr. Murray's girlfriend. When we finally served the search warrant at her apartment, the whole
place had been cleaned out. There was nothing to show that
Dr. Murray had been there, stayed there, frequented there at all. Fortunately, they had missed
behind one of the bookcases. And behind one of the
bookcases we found a receipt for a pharmacy. That led us to the propofol. (upbeat music continues) These items here are what we found at Nicole Alvarez's house. So, it brings me back to remembering how difficult things were when dealing with her. This business card and this
receipt were the only things in his name at her place. This led us to the pharmacy. (ominous music) When we arrived at the pharmacy, the pharmacy had all the records ready. They had been following the news and they knew that the police
would be there eventually. And as you go through, you
can see all of the amounts. One case of the 100 milliliter bottles, one case the 20 milliliter bottles. In June, four cases of the
100 milliliter bottles, all of the amounts, it's over five gallons worth of propofol. - A massive amount of propofol,
massive amount of propofol, was shipped to his girlfriend's house. (ominous music continues) - We found that there was other doctors that Michael had reached out to in hopes of being administered propofol. And he was turned down. - That relationship was a perfect storm. Michael first got introduced to propofol through a dental
procedure, and he liked it. He felt like, "Wow, this is
the best way to go to sleep." - That was his drug of choice. And he was looking for doctors that would administer that, you know? As wrong as it was. - Usually you think of a doctor as someone very successful and ethical and distinguish why they would risk a patient's life for anything. What would make it worth it? (suspenseful music) - And we done search
warrants out in Las Vegas, at his residence, as well as his place of
business in Las Vegas. And then his office out in Houston, Texas. (people chattering) - We get into finances, we
get into business dealings, and his relationships. - We executed a search warrant down at the Armstrong Medical
Clinic this morning, with members from the DEA and
the Houston Police Department, and we are from LAPD
robbery homicide division. - He had several children, we would learn, several of 'em
by several different wives. - He would go out to places
of adult entertainment and spend outrageous amounts of money. He would put on a show and not be able to support it financially. He would leverage his
closeness to a celebrity to manipulate young women
into relationships with. - We knew that he had
purchased a home in October in Las Vegas for over a million dollars. And his mortgage was $10,000 a month. And he had stopped paying it. (cars whoosh) (suspenseful music) - He had censures from different states where
he practiced medicine. (suspenseful music continues) These different medical boards, they sent us the files of the complaints and the penalties that they
would impose on Dr. Murray when he would violate their rules. We saw a pattern of sloppy behavior. - A private physician to Michael Jackson, and here he is, just an absolute mess. You know? Yeah, surprising. (suspenseful music continues) - This is what I recovered from his car, from the doctor's car. (ominous music) This was the contract
as we first found it, the agreement between Dr.
Murray, AEG, and Mr. Jackson. "The producers shall remit
payment to Dr. Murray in the amount of $150,000 per month." So this is where the money came into it. (crowd cheering) - Michael started working, preparing, for this huge comeback tour, and that's when he had
reached out, Michael, and told AEG that he wanted
Conrad Murray with them. And initially AEG's like, you know, "London's not a third world country, they have fabulous doctors over there. What do you need your own physician for?" - And Michael's response
to his managers were, "Listen, the president
of the United States has a physician travel with him, I want a physician to travel with me." - Dr. Murray agreed to go
ahead and accompany him and provide Michael with what he wanted. - So he needed this gig with Mr. Jackson, either to pay off or to
keep up with his debts. - He had the right
motive, he needed money. (dark suspenseful music) (police radio chatter) - Ultimately the decision was made to charge Dr. Murray with
involuntary manslaughter, as opposed to second degree murder. (dark music continues) - The DA's office didn't want
another high profile failure. It was an election year
for the district attorney. I think it was a, I don't want to say the lazy way out, but, again, a manslaughter charge was, you know, the path of least resistance. - The family wasn't happy with it at all. Mrs. Jackson was just beside herself that there wasn't going to be
a second degree murder file. - We felt the evidence suggests
that it was a second degree. (dark music continues) - The level of his
negligence was just so clear that we thought that it would apply. We do not charge people. We investigate the case and we present it. We were not happy with the choice, but we deal with what we
can and we move forward. - [Detective Smith] When I felt
a little pressure, I guess, is when it came time to arrest Dr. Murray. (suspenseful music) - We wanted to see Murray in handcuffs. And I think a lot of, you know, people wanted
to see him in handcuffs. (people chattering) - His attorneys didn't
want Dr. Murray to be seen in handcuffs in public, 'cause that's not good for his image, and neither is killing somebody, but-- (people chattering) - [Detective Martinez] Behind our backs the DA's office made that agreement with Dr. Murray's attorneys.
(people clamoring) - The doctor turned himself
in, voluntary surrender. You know, I'm of the opinion that, regardless of who you are, what
walk of life you come from, if you've done wrong, then
you need to answer for that. (intense dramatic music) - I am an innocent man. I therefore plead not guilty. - Again, he feels he'd done nothing wrong. It wasn't his fault. He's an arrogant individual. (dramatic music continues) - Conrad Murray,
figuratively and literally abandoned Michael Jackson. - We look at Murray's phone records, that was a big, huge piece. We could see Murray on his
phone at certain times. - He left this vulnerable man filled with Valium and midazolam
and lorazepam and propofol with no medical monitoring equipment, no necessary resuscitative equipment. He left him there, abandoned
him to fend for himself. - So as far as stepping away for a minute and going to the bathroom and coming back and, "Oh my gosh, Michael's dead," no. - He was sending emails,
reviewing a contract, and he was also on the
telephone with various people. While he was on the phone, he realized that Mr.
Jackson was not breathing. - I heard mumbling of voices, it sounded like the phone was maybe in his pocket or something. It was (whooshes), and I heard coughing. - We looked at the timelines
of when the 911 call was, I think, around 20 to 25 minutes after that call with Sade Anding. - Mr. Murray started cleaning
up the mess that he had left, covering up the medical
treatment that he was giving, put that away, called
for help from security, directed them to call 911, while he gave ineffective, one-handed CPR, (climactic music) and then traveled to the
hospital with Mr. Jackson. Dr. Murray fled the
hospital before we arrived, waited a couple days to
get his story straight, and ultimately was prosecuted for his conduct. - [Juror] We the jury in
the above and titled action, find the defendant, Conrad Robert Murray guilty--
(woman yelps) - Shh!
- Of the crime of involuntary manslaughter. (crowd cheers) (camera clicks) (people chattering) (climactic music) - And that's how that turned out. (hurried suspenseful music) Should it have been a
second degree murder? Yeah, I think it could have been. - Unfortunately, that is not a choice that we were able to make. (cell door slams) The biggest thing is is that he does not get his medical license back in any state. And I personally don't see that happening. And I'm just trying to keep
it light and polite here. But, yeah, he's in his own world. He's in his own world, Dr. Murray. (solemn music) - I think that this case,
we actually had the answers. We won't be in that
book of unsolved murders all the big ones where we failed. At least my name won't be put
in the same place as those. It's something I'll
never forget, obviously, the rest of my life. One hell of an experience. Yeah, no regrets. - In big cases like this, sometimes, you know,
friendships can really dissolve. But not in this case, it was, we all lived happily ever after. (inspiring music)
- As soon as this one was over, it comes to, "This is what we expect of you." You get your next murder
and you move forward. (car rumbling) About four years after the trial I was driving home from work. I look over to my left and I see this green, older, nice Mercedes. (mysterious music) I feel someone staring at me. I look over at the same
car and I see Dr. Murray. It took me a few seconds to
register that it was him, and by that time our cars had separated, but I never saw any double takes or any instant moment of recognition. At that time, I wondered whether or not he would start practicing medicine again. Do you give someone like
that a second chance? Someone who's done their time for the crime that they've committed. When do you let it go? (mysterious music continues)
