LOS ANGELES — The investigation into Michael Jackson’s death has taken another twist.
Late Monday, it was revealed that the Drug Enforcement Administration has joined the Los Angeles Police Department and the L.A. County coroner’s office in the investigation of the music icon’s death last Thursday.
The DEA will assist in probing deeper into the allegations that Jackson’s death was tied to the use of prescription drugs by interviewing doctors who treated and prescribed medications to the star.
Speculation into what may have caused Jackson’s death began almost immediately after the 50-year-old superstar was pronounced dead from an apparent cardiac arrest. Brian Oxman, a former Jackson family attorney and friend, told reporters that prescription drugs likely played a role in Jackson’s death.
“I said one day, we’re going to have this experience. And when Anna Nicole Smith passed away, I said we cannot have this kind of thing with Michael Jackson,” Oxman said on Friday’s “Today” show. “The result was, I warned everyone, and lo and behold, here we are. I don’t know what caused his death. But I feared this day, and here we are.”
Jackson’s longtime friend, singer Liza Minnelli, also hinted at more to come during an appearance on CBS’ “Early Show.”
“I’m sure when the autopsy comes, all hell’s going to break loose,” she said. “So thank God we’re celebrating him now.”
The Los Angeles County Coroner’s office completed their autopsy of Jackson on Friday, but they have yet to determine what killed the music legend.
“There was no indication of any external trauma or any indication of foul play on the body of Mr. Jackson,” Craig Harvey, operations chief for the Los Angeles County Coroner, revealed to reporters after the three-hour autopsy.
Harvey confirmed that the pop icon was taking prescription medication, but said officials are still awaiting further toxicology results before determining the singer’s exact cause of death. Those results are not expected back for at least another four to six weeks.
Earlier this week, authorities removed prescription medications and two bags of evidence from Jackson’s Holmby Hills home. According to TMZ, one of the drugs removed from Jackson’s rented home was Propofol, an extremely powerful drug also known as Diprivan. It is administered intravenously as a general anesthetic used to sedate patients for surgery and is only available to medical personnel.
Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse who Jackson leaned on to boost his energy, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the singer repeatedly asked her for the drug, but she denied his requests. However, Lee later feared that Jackson had managed to obtain the drug after receiving a “frantic phone call” from a member of his staff just four days before his death.
“He called and was very frantic and said, ‘Michael needs to see you right away,’ ” she told AP. “I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ And I could hear Michael in the background [saying], ‘One side of my body is hot, it’s hot, and one side of my body is cold, it’s very cold.’
“At that point, I knew that somebody had given him something that hit the central nervous system,” she continued. “He was in trouble Sunday and he was crying out.”
Lee, who specializes in nutritional counseling, told AP that contrary to reports, Jackson wasn’t abusing drugs. Rather, he was simply seeking a way to fight sleep deprivation on the heels of his scheduled July comeback tour in London.
“He wasn’t looking to get high or feel good and sedated from drugs,” she said. “This was a person who was not on drugs. This was a person who was seeking help, desperately, to get some sleep, to get some rest.”
It is possible that if Jackson’s death is found to have been caused by Propofol, the doctor who prescribed it could be prosecuted for manslaughter.
