LOS ANGELES (AP) — The judge in the upcoming trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor has ruled that witnesses will not be allowed to testify about the pop star’s child molestation trial.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said Monday such testimony would be distracting and misleading for the jury in Dr. Conrad Murray’s involuntary manslaughter trial and is irrelevant.
Pastor also barred the testimony of Jackson’s longtime dermatologists, Arnold Klein, after prosecutors said the defense was trying to divert attention from Murray and claim that Klein was culpable in Jackson’s drug overdose death.
The defense claims Klein was giving Jackson the painkiller Demerol for long periods and Jackson was withdrawing from it when he died.
Jackson died in 2009 of an overdose of the anesthetic propofol complicated by other medications.
