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Doctor faces probe as brother hails Jackson as humanitarian

THE personal physician who tried to revive a dying Michael Jackson has been named as the target of a manslaughter probe into the singer's death.

A search warrant filed on Thursday allowed authorities to seek "property or items constituting evidence of the offense of manslaughter that tend to show that Dr Conrad Murray committed the said criminal offense."

The warrant was filed a day after agents seized items from the physician's Houston clinic and a rented storage unit.

Murray, 51, was with Jackson as he died and has been a key figure in the monthlong investigation since the beginning. The search of his clinic indicated authorities were focusing on him, but the warrant language made it clear he's the target.

The court documents detailed items seized by federal drug agents and Los Angeles police. Among them were 27 tablets of the weight loss drug phentermine, a tablet of the muscle relaxant clonazepam, two computer hard drives, e-mails and a controlled substance registration.

Murray's lawyer, Edward Chernoff, confirmed a search warrant had been executed and that none of the items seized had previously been requested by authorities, but did not comment further.

Murray was hired as Jackson's personal physician just weeks before he died. He was in Jackson's rented Los Angeles mansion when the pop star was found unconscious on the morning of June 25 and tried to revive him.

Murray, a cardiologist, is licensed to practice in California, Texas and Nevada. Records show he has had no disciplinary actions taken against him, though one item seized by investigators is a suspension notice from a Houston hospital. No details are provided.

The Los Angeles County coroner's office was not expected to make an official determination of what killed Jackson until at least next week, and investigators this week were reviewing medical records taken from the offices of other doctors in the probe.

Meanwhile, the pop icon's brother said in Vienna that Michael Jackson was a "wonderful humanitarian" who considered it important to reach out and help others.

Jermaine Jackson also said the King of Pop's "whole existence" was to find the good in everyone and described his unexpected death at age 50 as a "tragic loss."

"As much as my brother achieved in the music industry, he was a wonderful human being and a wonderful humanitarian," Jackson said.

Much better place

"My brother, he was well-versed in just knowing what was most important and that's giving back ... to make the world a much better place."

Jackson said his brother donated the proceeds of many of his concert tours to charity and said there were "pages and pages and pages" filled with examples of his humanitarian work.

Jackson spoke at a news conference in the Austrian capital yesterday just hours before he was to attend a gala paying tribute to Michael Jackson's charity efforts.

Others to be honored include sprinter Carl Lewis, whose foundation supports underprivileged children.

Lewis said Michael Jackson had "done so much for children" and would be remembered forever.




 

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