A judge turned down the defense’s request to release Michael Jackson’s personal physician from jail while he appeals his involuntary manslaughter conviction stemming from the singer’s death from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol in June 2009.
Dr. Conrad Murray was not required to be in court for the hearing on Friday before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor, who sentenced him on Nov. 29 to four years in county jail.
In his Jan. 27 court filing, Murray asked the judge to release him on his own recognizance–meaning his promise to return–or on bail pending his appeal. Murray, who turned 59 Sunday, wrote in his declaration that he has been informed by his appellate attorney that it will take “well over a year” before a decision is rendered in his appeal.
Murray also wrote that he would agree to comply with “any and all conditions of release, including but not limited to electronic monitoring, periodic check-in with any agency or court or such other conditions that the court deems reasonable,” and that he would live with Nicole Alvarez and their son, who will turn three next month.
In their response last week, Deputy District Attorneys David Walgren and Deborah Brazil urged the judge to deny Murray’s request.
“The defendant fails to demonstrate that he is unlikely to flee,” the prosecutors wrote, noting that he has “significant ties outside the state of California, as well as ties outside of the United States.”
“Defendant is unauthorized to practice medicine since each of his medical licenses has been revoked. Moreover, defendant is now a convicted felon, sentenced to a term of four years in state prison. He clearly is not in the same position as when he attended court proceedings prior to being convicted and sentenced,” Walgren and Brazil wrote in their opposition to Murray’s request.
The judge concurred with the prosecutors, saying he considers Murray, who was born in Grenada, a flight risk.
Murray has been jailed since the judge ordered him to be taken into custody Nov. 7 just after he was convicted of the felony count stemming from Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009.
