Michael Jackson Begged Another Doctor for Sleep Meds
Oct 24th, 2011 by Bilal Ali
After performing, Michael Jackson had such bad insomnia that he said couldn’t be cured by any oral drug and urged his longtime physician Allan Metzger to give him an anesthetic to sleep, Metzger testified Monday.
Metzger, testifying for the defense at the start of the fifth week of Dr. Conrad Murray’s involuntary manslaughter trial, said he told Jackson during an April 14, 2009 visit – two months before Jackson’s death – that administering an IV anesthetic outside of a hospital was dangerous and he would not do it.
“He asked me about intravenous sleep medicines. He used the word ‘juice,’ ” says Metzger. “I don’t think he mentioned the word of a specific sleep medication,” adds the doctor, who had treated Jackson on and off for roughly two decades and had toured with him, just as Murray had planned to do. “[Jackson] did not believe any oral medicine would be helpful.”
Defense attorneys are trying to show that Jackson was an out-of-control addict who likely took a drug overdose the second Murray’s back was turned. Prosecutors says Murray was a negligent doctor who, for $150,000 a month, willingly gave the pop superstar whatever he wanted, including toxic levels of the IV anesthetic propofol. They also maintain that there is no evidence that Jackson gave himself the overdose.
Under cross-examination, Deputy District Attorney David Walgren asked Metzger if there was “any amount of money that would have convinced you to give [Jackson] an IV of propofol in his house?”
“Absolutely not,” Metzger replied.
The prosecution rested Monday. Closing arguments are expected by early next week.