Dr. Steven Shafer's testimony - Day 15 -
Anesthesiologist Dr. Steven Shafer has been cross-examined today by lead defense attorney Ed Chernoff.
Murray's defense team challenged the motives and methods of the prosecution's anesthesiology expert Friday, while the judge threatened to hold the defense propofol expert in contempt for comments he made about the prosecution.
The judge addressed the matter outside of the presence of the jury.
He asked Dr. White if he said, "What a scumbag," in reference to prosecutor David Walgren. Dr. White denied making the comment.
He recalled expressing his disapproval over the way Walgren had handled a propofol bottle. He said he made a comment to Walgren about how he thought he was tampering with evidence.
The judge also asked Dr. White if he said that "Dr .Shafer's testimony has changed the way I think of him." Or, "I will take the high road, not the low road. The truth will come out."
Dr. White tried to explain that he felt that some of the things that have been said about him were unfair. But the judge ignored his attempt to put the comments into context.
"You have no business making those comments either in this courtroom or where they can be overheard," said Judge Pastor.
The judge also reminded everyone that the attorneys, their staff and witnesses are not allowed to comment on the evidence.
Dr. Steven Shafer, the last prosecution witness, will still be on the witness stand when the trial resumes Monday.Shafer testified Thursday that the "only scenario" to explain Michael Jackson's death was that he overdosed on propofol infused through an IV drip set up by Murray.
Prosecutors argue that Murray's reckless use of the surgical anesthetic propofol to help Jackson sleep led to his death, while the defense contends Jackson self-administered the fatal dose, along with sedatives, without Murray knowing.
Shafer, in his testimony Thursday, said the level of propofol in Jackson's blood taken during his autopsy could not have been from either Murray or Jackson injecting the drug, but only from an IV system that was still flowing when his heart stopped.
Prosecutors, however, opened the door for one scenario in which Jackson, not Murray, could have triggered the overdose.
"Can you rule out the possibility that Michael Jackson manipulated something to cause it to flow?" Deputy District Attorney David Walgren asked Friday.
"That's a possibility," Shafer said. But that is assuming Murray set up the drip and left Jackson's side, he said.
Would Shafer's opinion that Murray was responsible for Jackson's death change if he knew Jackson turned the drip on?
"No, if Michael Jackson had reached up, seen the roller clamp and opened it himself, this is a foreseeable consequence of setting up an essentially dangerous way of giving drugs," Shafer said. "It doesn't change things at all. It would still be considered abandonment."
Lead defense lawyer Ed Chernoff decided to conduct Shafer's cross-examination instead of leaving it to Michael Flanagan, the defense team's most knowledgeable lawyer about propofol.
Toxicology studies of drugs in Jackson's blood and computer models Shafer used to analyze how he died were overshadowed Friday when Chernoff focused on the personal and professional rivalry between Shafer and Dr. Paul White, the defense expert.
The experts first met in 1978 when White was an assistant professor at Stanford University and Shafer was a medical student. They became friends and co-authored research papers, but this trial appears to have changed their friendship.
Chernoff accused Shafer of wanting to "shove it down his (White's) professional throat" in a question stricken from the record by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor.
White was lectured by Judge Pastor about comments about Shafer attributed to him in an online blog.
White admitted Friday that he told a reporter that he had changed his opinion of Shafer after hearing his testimony Thursday. "I was his teacher when he was a medical student," E! News Online quoted White as saying. "The truth will come out. It always does."
White denied calling Shafer "a scumbag," as the website quoted him as saying.
Pastor, who imposed a gag order on all parties in the trial, set a contempt of court hearing for White next month.
"You are not in any way shape or form, to comment on your views regarding the state of the evidence, witnesses or your views as to any counsel in this case," Pastor said.
Chernoff cross-examined Shafer about the assumptions he used to reconstruct an IV drip system he believed Murray set up next to Jackson's bed. Shafer demonstrated the system in his testimony Thursday.
Shafer testified that he did not think it was significant that investigators never found a key component of the tubing in the system. "It's so easy to remove," Shafer said.
Murray appeared visibly shaken by Shafer's testimony Thursday, especially when he demonstrated his version of the IV drip.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said Friday that he was considering contempt-of-court charges against a key defense witness for reportedly calling a prosecution expert “a scumbag.”
Dr. Paul White, set to take the stand for the defense next week, denied in court making the remark, which was reported by E! Online Thursday.
He did acknowledge to judge that he made other critical comments about a fellow anesthesiologist, Dr. Steven Shafer, to E!.
“I am going to take the high road, not the low road with him,” the network’s website quoted White as him saying. “I was his teacher when he was a medical student. The truth will come out. It always does.”
Pastor set a hearing for November 16 for possible sanctions against White and defense attorneys for Murray.
The judge, who previously issued a gag order against trial participants, told White outside the presence of the jury: “You have no business making any of those comments.”
Shafer is the most important medical witness for the prosecution, and White serves the same role for the defense. The men, longtime colleagues who have described themselves as friends, disagree on what scientific evidence shows about Jackson’s death.
In White’s report, he said it was possible Jackson caused his own death by drinking propofol, a theory Dr. Shafer dismissed as clearly impossible.
On the witness stand, Shafer said was “disappointed” by White, who was sitting in the well of the court behind the defense table.
White and Murray have whispered to each other during breaks in Shafer’s testimony.
White was a professor at Stanford Medical School when Shafer was a student, but in testimony Friday, Shafer emphasized that he did not consider White his teacher.
The defense immediately got to challenging Shafer's conclusions, that it was most unlikely he took as much lorazepam as Murray contended and that he most certainly did not give himself propofol. "That's a bold claim, isn't it?" Chernoff questioned him. "That's what I think happened," Shafer responded. "Everything you've said is an opinion," Chernoff said, to which Shafer replied, slamming Murray, "It might be the position that I have as a physician. To say that one should not lie to UCLA Medical Center is my opinion."
Noting that he purchased the propofol and equipment that was used in yesterday's demo, Shafer quipped, "I hope to be reimbursed."
Before testimony began today, Pastor admonished White for yesterday's outburst, giving him a "clear and unequivocal order" prohibiting him from discussing his thoughts on counsel or any witnesses with the media. Pastor read White's remarks to E! News back to him and White admitted that he made the published comments. White said he could not remember whether he used the word "scumbag" inside the courtroom, however. A hearing set for November 16 is to determine whether White's behavior amounts to contempt of court.
We mean the abrupt end to yesterday's testimony from anesthesiologist Steven Shafer, who's been on the stand testifying for several days for the prosecution. Toward the end of the afternoon, Deputy District Attorney David Walgren presented Shafer with an infusion machine and asked him to demonstrate how Murray most likely set up a propofol drip for Michael Jackson.
The demo had a rough effect on the defendant, who whispered loudly to his friend and potential defense witness Dr. Paul White, "Can you believe that?" And White turned to the media present and said, "What a scumbag" as L.A. Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor summoned counsel into a meeting, called for a break and ultimately adjourned for the day.
Who's the "scumbag"? It's unclear exactly who White was referring to, but later he told E! News that he found Walgren's evidence presentation "unethical" and that his view of Shafer was forever changed.
Attorney Ed Chernoff questioned Dr. Steven Shafer about his relationship with defense expert Dr. Paul White. The two anesthesiologists have been friends and colleagues for close to 30 years.Chernoff accused Dr. Shafer of being "dismissive" when he testified that he was "disappointed" in Dr. White's report, which stated that Michael Jackson could have died by drinking propofol.
Chernoff then went on to say that Dr. Shafer wanted to take the results of one of his own studies and "shove them down [Dr. White's] professional throat."
Prosecutor David Walgren objected to the comment for being argumentative.
The awkward tension in the courtroom was lifted when the judge insisted that Chernoff ask question.
Shafer had set up an IV drip system in court to suggest the way in which Murray might have wrongfully infused the powerful anesthetic propofol to Jackson. But defense attorneys on Friday disputed whether such a system was ever used.
"You understand that when the police came to the scene, when coroner investigators came to the scene, they did not find an IV set such as that one?" Ed Chernoff, the lead defense attorney, asked Shafer on the witness stand.
Shafer admitted that a vented IV tube with a plastic spike -- such as the one he used in his demonstration for jurors -- was not found at the scene. But he testified that Murray still could have used one and easily balled up the tube and pocketed it before leaving Jackson's Los Angeles mansion.
Defense attorney Ed Chernoff tried to discredit Dr. Shafer's testimony from yesterday saying he used the wrong IV tubing. Shafer said he tried to get the exact same tubing Murray used but couldn't get it shipped in time for the trial, so he used a different brand.
Chernoff pointed out Shafer used the wrong size syringe and IV bag in his demonstrations -- possibly to show his dramatic reenactment wasn't accurate. Shafer said he didn't think "size mattered.
Chernoff asked Shafer about his relationship with Dr. Paul White, the defense's Propofol expert, asking him if he nominated White for an "Excellence In Research" award. Shafer said it was.
Dr. Steven Shafer, who previously testified that the only plausible explanation for the death was that Jackson had been hooked up to an IV drip of the anesthetic propofol then left alone by Murray.
"That's a bold claim, isn't it," Chernoff asked.
"It's an honest statement," Shafer replied.
"You certainly do consider that what you have claimed occurred in this case is an extraordinary claim?" Ed Chernoff, the lead defence attorney, asked Shafer on the witness stand.
"Not at all," Shafer said.
The trial resumes Monday, October 24, 2011 at 8:45 AM PDT.
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