Court Report

The cross-examination of Elissa Fleak, the Coroner’s Investigator, began today. She identified various items through photos of Michael’s bedroom, and responded to questions about finding evidence in that room. At the time, she had been accompanied by a member of LAPD, Detective Scott Smith, who was also performing investigations on behalf of the Police Department. Both were photographing items of interest.

It appears there was a BOSE radio/CD player on the bed and clothing on floor of a nearby hallway. Mr Chernoff drew her attention to a photo of a syringe on a glass table, with no attached needle. There was a query about an IV catheter and a broken syringe, which Miss Fleck admitted she had described incorrectly making an incorrect assumption.

The Defense also asked her why her thumbprint appeared on the syringe and why some objects on a table in various photographs appeared to have been moved. She stated she had moved the table to photograph a Propofol bottle which was on the floor under the table.

Miss Fleak had subpoenaed all of Michael’s medical records through Conrad Murray, but received them from Mr Chernoff, Murray’s Counsel. The records only covered the period up to a date in April.
A considerable amount of time was spent discussing the records, which bore some instances when Michael or Murray had used an alias for him.

The Defense then asked what her job was. She replied that it was to provide information for the pathologist to establish the cause of death and mode of death.

On June 29th Detective Scott Smith told her that Murray had told him that additional evidence was to be found in another room. She arranged to meet the detective there. This is when the blue bag and the CostCo bag were found, photographed and searched, revealing the IV bag with the Propofol bottle inside, amongst other vials of drugs.

Mr Chernoff chastised her for some mistakes she had made and for destroying her initial notes once she had transcribed them into the official forms, for not mentioning the IV bag with the Propofol bottle inside it, until March 29th 2011. She explained that her notes had all been transcribed onto the official forms and record documents.

She also listed the names of doctors who had cared for Michael under various aliases.

Miss Fleak did not know if the scene was secured on June 25th, 2009 after she left.

The next witness was Dan Anderson, a Supervising L.A. County Criminal Toxicologist/Criminalist.

After the autopsy, he had tested all samples taken from the scene in the house, from the UCLA hospital and from the autopsy. He described how all tests were completed by several members of his staff and himself and tried to make those tests clear to the jury. A highly qualified expert, he described each entry on the Laboratory Analysis Summary Report in full detail.

Tests were completed for ‘everyday’ medical drugs and also opiates and prescription drugs.

The Demerol with which Michael had been accused of being addicted was not present in the testing of any area of Michael’s body.

The only drugs to be found in the femoral blood sample were Lidocaine, Propofol and Lorazepam.

The heart blood sample from the autopsy showed traces of Lidocaine, Diazapam, Lorazeoam, Midazolam,and Propofol.

The heart blood from UCLA hospital showed traces of Lidocaine and Propofol.

The solid specimen of the liver showed traces of Lidocaine and a larger trace of Propofol.

The stomach contents showed tiny traces of Lidocaine and Propofol.

Tests done on the urine taken at the autopsy showed the presence of Midazolam, Ephedrine and Propofol.

The urine which had been collected for the bedroom showed the presence of Midazolam, Ephedrine and Propofol.

Traces of Propofol were also found in the liquid behind Michael’s eyes, (the Aqueous humour).

Before court ended for the day, a long question and answer discussion followed between the Defense attorney, Mr, Flanagan and Mr Anderson most of which was highly technical.

Source: MJWN