LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson’s family sat solemnly across the courtroom from the doctor charged in the death of the pop legend, listening as a judge said Monday he could not suspend Dr. Conrad Murray’s medical license in California and that it could take months for the case to go to trial.
“I want to give this case priority,” said Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor. “It is a very serious matter for Dr. Murray, for the Jackson family and the community at large.”
Pastor said the schedules of everyone involved in the case and the need for preparation time required that a preliminary hearing be moved back at least to Aug. 23, with a requirement to start within 60 days after that. A trial date can’t be set until that process concludes.
Several members of Jackson’s family, including his father, mother, sister and brothers, attended the hearing.
Murray sat expressionless beside his attorneys. Asked whether he waived his right to a speedy preliminary hearing, the doctor quietly replied, “Yes, sir.” Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in Jackson’s death last June.
Pastor was emphatic about his refusal to change an order previously issued by Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz declining to suspend Murray’s medical license when he was arraigned in February.
Schwartz did order Murray not to administer heavy anesthetics such as propofol, the drug cited in Jackson’s death.
Pastor said it would conflict with established case law to change Schwartz’s ruling and would set him up as “a one- judge appellate court.”
“There is oftentimes in the real world a belief that judges can make up the rules as they go through a case,” Pastor said. However, he said, the law mandates, “I do not have the ability to revisit a ruling by one of my colleagues.”
Pastor told Deputy District Attorney General Trina Saunders the medical board had the option of holding an administrative hearing on the license. He also said she could appeal his ruling.
