Doctor condition: Michael Jackson’s doc always at side by pop star’s request
Not long before Michael Jackson died under his doctor’s watch, the pop icon insisted his personal physician become a 24-hour caretaker and accompany him on his wildly-anticipated London concert series, the Daily News learned yesterday.
Randy Phillips, president and CEO of concert promoter AEG LIVE, said it was “almost a contractual condition” that Jackson have Dr. Conrad Murray at his side in the U.S. and London.
Phillips said when Jackson asked that Murray be his personal doctor, AEG officials told him “some of the best doctors in the world are in London… and wouldn’t it make sense” to hire someone to be on call, as opposed to someone at his side full-time.
But he said Jackson “insisted” and Murray was brought in at a “substantial” but undisclosed fee.
It was unclear how long Murray had been Jackson’s physician.
Tohme Tohme, a family spokesman, said Murray had been in the position for about a year, but Phillips said he understood the relationship had been going on about three years.
Phillips said Murray, who tried to resuscitate the fading Jackson inside his Bel Air home, was at the hospital when he arrived. “He was there, very distraught all day. I saw him.”
Authorities were poised yesterday to interview the 51-year-old Murray.
Murray spoke briefly with investigators at UCLA Medical Center on Thursday. Cops later impounded his silver BMW in search of clues leading to Jackson’s perplexing death.
A 911 caller said Murray was the only one with Jackson when he collapsed, according to a tape released yesterday.
“Did anybody witness what happened?” the dispatcher asked.
The caller responded, “Uh, no, just the doctor, sir. The doctor’s been the only one here,” according to the tape.
Murray, like Jackson, had his share of financial woes.
He was slapped with more than $400,000 in legal judgments last year and has a history of financial woes going back to 1992.
Last year, three judgments were filed against Murray or his Las Vegas-based company, Global Cardiovascular Associates, totaling more than $435,000, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In 1992, Murray filed for bankruptcy in Riverside, Calif. Five tax liens were filed against him between 1993 and 2003, in amounts totaling more than $44,600, county records show.
Murray’s office in Las Vegas was abandoned yesterday. A receptionist at his clinic in Houston told the Daily News she did not know his whereabouts. “He hasn’t been answering his phone,” the receptionist said.
A former intern of Murray’s, Jonathan Rubright, who worked in his Las Vegas office for two months this year, said he spotted a file for a man named Michael Jackson after he was asked to reorganize records.
At the time, he thought little of it.
“There are thousands of Michael Jacksons out there,” Rubright, 26, said.
Rubright said Murray, whom he described as “meticulous and very professional,” was constantly shuttling between his offices in Texas and Las Vegas.
Rubright added that Murray - who has no history of discipline in the three states where he’s licensed, Texas, California and Nevada. Murray lives in a palatial, $1.5 million home in a gated community in Las Vegas. The 5,268-square-foot, two-story mansion has four bedrooms, three fireplaces, a pool and a spa, records show.
A woman who answered the phone there yesterday declined to comment.
After graduating in 1989 from Meharry Medical College, a traditionally African-American school in Nashville, Tenn., he had cardiology fellowships in Arizona and San Diego.
In 2006, Murray opened a cardiovascular institute in the Houston community where his father, Dr. A. Rawle Andrews, ran a celebrated family practice for decades.
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