The Daily Swarm

CNN:

Dr. Conrad Murray, personal physician to Michael Jackson, was charged Monday with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the pop star’s death last summer….A criminal complaint filed earlier in the day alleged that Murray “did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson.”

Murray turned himself in shortly before 4 p.m. at a branch courthouse near Los Angeles International Airport. He pleaded not guilty during a brief hearing before Judge Keith L. Schwartz….The judge set bail at $75,000, despite arguments from prosecutor David Walgren that Murray is a flight risk….The judge refused to suspend Murray’s medical license as a term of his bond, but he did order him not to use any anesthesia on patients. “I don’t want you sedating people,” Schwartz told Murray.

The involuntary manslaughter charge means that Murray caused Jackson’s death by acting “without due caution and circumspection.” If convicted, Murray would face a maximum four-year prison sentence, according to prosecutors.

People:

Involuntary manslaughter wasn’t a tough enough charge against Michael Jackson’s doctor, says an attorney for the pop star’s father.

“This charge is a slap on the wrist,” Brian Oxman, Joseph Jackson’s longtime lawyer, tells PEOPLE. “There’s great disappointment here. [Conrad Murray] should’ve been charged with a higher degree of responsibility. What he did was reckless. It was a disregard for human life.”

New York Times:

Nearly eight months after Michael Jackson died suddenly, his personal physician was charged Monday with involuntary manslaughter for providing him with a powerful anesthetic that was ruled a major factor in his death.

Michael Jackson fans gathered outside the courthouse where Conrad Murray was expected to appear.
The filing of the charges capped an investigation that revealed Mr. Jackson’s heavy reliance on narcotics, including propofol, an anesthetic normally used in surgery but administered to Mr. Jackson, 50, as

The filing of the charges capped an investigation that revealed Mr. Jackson’s heavy reliance on narcotics, including propofol, an anesthetic normally used in surgery but administered to Mr. Jackson, 50, as a sleep aid.

The doctor, Conrad Murray, a cardiologist with offices in Houston and Las Vegas, had acknowledged giving Mr. Jackson the drug shortly before the singer was found unconscious on June 25 in a rented mansion here, according to police affidavits. The coroner determined that Mr. Jackson had died from “acute propofol intoxication,” combined with other sedatives.