Murray defense expert to face contempt hearing
The judge in the trial of Michael Jackson’s personal physician said Friday he was considering contempt of court charges against a key defense witness for reportedly calling a prosecution expert “a scumbag.”
The trial judge, who had previously issued a gag order against participants in the case, grilled prominent anesthesiologist Dr. Paul White about comments on the trial attributed to him that appeared Thursday on E! Online. White is expected to testify as a medical expert for the defense of Dr. Conrad Murray.
White denied making the remark, but acknowledged to a clearly irked Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor that he made other critical comments about Dr. Steven Shafer, a New York anesthesiologist with whom he has had a long and previously amiable professional relationship.
“I am going to take the high road, not the low road with him,” E! Online’s website quoted White as saying. “I was his teacher when he was a medical student. The truth will come out. It always does.”
Pastor set a hearing for Nov. 16 on possible sanctions against White and defense attorneys.
“You have no business making any of those comments,” the judge said.
The spat goes to show how important the testimony of the two men — leading experts in the field of anesthesiology and the drugs used in it — is to both sides in the case.
Shafer categorically testified for prosecutors Thursday that Murray’s account of the hours leading up to Jackson’s death was not supported by the level of the drugs later found in the singer’s blood.
White’s comments about Shafer came after the prosecution witness testified that he was “disappointed” in his old colleague for embracing a defense theory that the singer might have caused his own death by drinking propofol. A principle taught to first-year medical students made it clear that was improbable, Shafer said.
Cross-examining Shafer on Friday, a defense attorney lambasted the expert for publicly humiliating White. He noted that the defense had discarded the theory before the trial began.
“That’s a very dismissive statement isn’t it,” lawyer Ed Chernoff asked.
“I was very disappointed,” Shafer replied. “Still disappointed.”
“You said that in court knowing that the TVs are here,” Chernoff said.
A prosecutor objected and the judge barred the question as argumentative.
Murray’s defense is to open its case next week. If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, he faces a maximum of four years in prison.
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