QuoteA hearing in the criminal case of Michael Jackson's doctor has been postponed because lawyers are bogged down viewing hundreds of hours of rehearsal footage from the singer's This Is It concert.
In a conference with lawyers on Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor accepted the requests to delay a July 12 hearing to July 20. He said he wants to know then when the involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr Conrad Murray can go forward. It is now set for September 8.
Prosecutors want to show jurors clips from the posthumous feature film This Is It to prove Jackson was healthy in the days before his death. The defence wants to show he was ill.
Murray, a Houston cardiologist with an office in Las Vegas, is accused of giving the superstar an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol and other sedatives when he could not sleep. Jackson died on June 15, 2009, in his rented Beverly Hills mansion where Murray had been attending him.
Murray has pleaded not guilty. The transcript of the conference with the judge and lawyers was released on Thursday.
[glow=red:34kxmohc]Lawyers indicated it will take weeks for them to view all of the relevant video recordings of Jackson. They said they have been working every day since June 28 and have gotten through only one of 21 boxes of materials.[/glow:34kxmohc]
"So far, we have found a lot of important stuff," said defence lawyer Nareg Gourjian.
Lawyers have been barred from discussing publicly any evidence they find in the videos.
Prosecutor Deborah Brazil said she has been working along with Gourjian, defence lawyer Ed Chernoff, Sony lawyer Kevin Vick and a technician going through material on computer hard drives.
Gourjian, who originally estimated there were 100 hours of footage from rehearsals, said he now believes there is much more.
"There are about eight to ten different cameras that were recording the rehearsals and each one has different views and different footage," he said. "So it is critical that we review the footage from each camera."
We've heard that there was over 100 hours and then it was about 80 hours (I think) and then there was barely enough for what we got and then it was there is enough for a sequel. I think we heard there was 2 or 3 camera's that shot footage and now this article says 8-10 cameras were recording rehearsals...nobody can seem to come up with a solid number on anything.
[glow=red:34kxmohc]Lawyers indicated it will take weeks for them to view all of the relevant video recordings of Jackson. They said they have been working every day since June 28 and have gotten through only one of 21 boxes of materials.[/glow:34kxmohc]
