May 1, 2013 Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A police detective testified Wednesday about the depths of debt that Michael Jackson's doctor faced while giving the singer treatments of the powerful anesthetic that killed the pop superstar.
Los Angeles police Detective Orlando Martinez said in a case filed by Jackson's mother against concert giant AEG Live that Conrad Murray faced student loans, home loans, child support obligations and credit card payments that were in arrears in 2009. Plaintiff's attorney Brian Panish said the debts totaled nearly $1 million.
Martinez has said the debts may have led Murray to act inappropriately in his care of Jackson in order to ensure he received $150,000 a month payments from AEG Live to serve as the singer's tour doctor.
"He may break the rules, bend the rules, do whatever he needed to do to get paid," Martinez said Tuesday. "It might solve his money problems."
Murray's finances were not a factor in the criminal case that ended with his 2011 conviction for administering a fatal dose of propofol to Jackson.
The former cardiologist is not a party to Katherine Jackson's negligent hiring case against the concert promoter, but he is a key figure. The Jackson family matriarch contends AEG did not properly investigate Murray before allowing him to serve as Jackson's tour physician for the ill-fated "This Is It" shows planned for 2009.
