Michael Jackson doctor 'ordered aide to remove vials'

Los Angeles: A close aide to Michael Jackson told today how the singer’s doctor ordered him to help remove medical equipment from around the star’s bed, even as the pop icon lay apparently lifeless. Alberto Alvarez, Jackson’s logistics director, said doctor Conrad Murray got him to help remove vials and a saline bag containing a “milky-white substance” set up on an intravenous (IV) drip stand next to the star’s bed. [caption id=“attachment_96286” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The five-week trial opened Tuesday, when prosecutors laid out their case that Murray was guilty of “gross negligence,” while the doctor’s lawyers said the drug-addicted star effectively caused his own death.”]  [/caption] Murray is accused of manslaughter over Jackson’s death on 25 June 2009, allegedly by giving him an overdose of the powerful sedative propofol, which the singer referred to as “milk” to help him sleep. “While I was standing at the foot of the bed he reached over and grabbed a handful of vials, and then he reached out to me and said ‘Here put these in a bag’,” Alvarez told the Los Angeles Superior Court. The doctor then asked him to remove the saline bag and put it in another bag, Alvarez said. As he removed the bag he noticed that there was a bottle inside the bag. “There was what appeared to me like a milky white substance. I recalled seeing it at the bottom of the bag,” he said, before prosecutor David Walgren offered evidence that the bottle was a 100 mg bottle of propofol. Alvarez had been called up to Jackson’s bedroom after Murray alerted aides that Jackson, 50, had had a “bad reaction.” The scene involving the removal of equipment occurred before paramedics arrived. The five-week trial opened Tuesday, when prosecutors laid out their case that Murray was guilty of “gross negligence,” while the doctor’s lawyers said the drug-addicted star effectively caused his own death. Murray, 58, faces up to four years in jail if convicted of involuntary manslaughter by a jury of seven men and five women. AFP