Pop icon Michael Jackson's doctor did not inject a powerful painkiller into the singing star just before his death, the doctor's lawyer said in remarks published on Sunday.
"There was no Demerol. No OxyContin," asserted lawyer Edward Chernoff in an interview posted on the Los Angeles Times' Website.
Dr. Conrad Murray met with Los Angeles police for three hours Saturday, and told them he "fortuitously" entered Jackson's bedroom Thursday and found the 50-year-old man unconscious.
"He checked for a pulse," said the lawyer, Chernoff. "There was a weak pulse in his femoral artery. "He started administering CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation)," Chernoff told the paper.
The newspaper also reported that Chernoff strongly denied that Dr. Murray had ever "furnished or prescribed" Demerol to Jackson.
The newspaper also quoted a source close to the investigators who said the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) interview of Dr. Murray failed to turn up any smoking gun linking him with the death.
Separately, LAPD Lt. Gregg Strenk told the paper that investigators have no information that shows Jackson had been injected with Demerol or other painkillers. Such reports "are coming from outside the investigation," the paper quoted police assaying.
Rumors have swirled that Jackson may have stopped breathing after being given a shot of the painkiller Demerol.
Michael Jackson's family has raised questions about the death of the King of Pop as a probe into his death continued.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who is a family spokesman, said on Saturday that they have questions about the death, but not a lot of answers.
Jackson, 50, died at the Medical Center of the University of California in Los Angeles on Thursday after going into full cardiac arrest.
He died days away from the start of a sold-out series of 50 concerts in London.
Jackson's family hired a private firm to conduct a second autopsy, which was completed on Saturday, said sources close to Jackson's family.
Jackson acknowledged being addicted to prescription drugs in the 1990s.
But Randy Phillips, chief executive of insurance company AEG Live, said Jackson passed a four-hour physical examination required to insure his London performances, and was given a clean bill of health.
Asked if the physical would have revealed drug use, Phillips said, "absolutely."
(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2009)
