The defence team of Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray on Thursday accused a coroner of botching the investigation of the pop star's death, in a development that could prove a key moment in Murray's manslaughter trial, DPA reported.
"Would you agree that you made a substantial number of mistakes?" attorney Ed Chernoff asked investigator Elissa Fleak.
"No," Fleak replied, before failing to provide an explanation for how her thumbprint got on a syringe on Jackson's nightstand.
"I typically wear gloves. I always wear gloves at crime scenes," she said.
Fleak also admitted that she had failed to catalog a juice bottle that was photographed by the side of Jackson's bed and which the defence claims Jackson used to mix the dose of the sedative propofol that caused his death.
Earlier she testified that she had only found one identifiable fingerprint of Murray on the vials of propofol in Jackson's bedroom and that Jackson's fingerprints were not found on any medication.
Prosecutors displayed all the drugs that Fleak had found in Jackson's room on a court table, which by the end of her testimony was filled with over three dozen bottles.
Murray, 58, is accused of involuntary manslaughter of the former King of Pop in June 2009. Jackson's personal physician has pled not guilty and faces four years in jail if convicted by the 12-person jury.
Prosecutors claim that Murray was negligent in giving Jackson the anaesthetic propofol as a sleeping aid and in failing to properly supervise his patient.
Murray's lawyer argued in his opening statement that Jackson self-administered the cocktail of drugs that caused his death, and that by the time Murray found him it was too late to save him.
Doctor's defence probes mistakes in Jackson investigation
The defence team of Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray on Thursday accused a coroner of botching the investigation of the pop star's death, in a development that could prove a key moment in Murray's manslaughter trial, DPA reported.
