Jacko Case: Homicide Detectives Take Over

Was Michael Jackson’s death an accidental murder? Was it more than just an accidental overdose on drugs?

The LAPD seems to think so: starting right after Michael’s memorial service on Tuesday, sources say that homicide detectives began making calls to Jackson’s inner circle, asking tough questions.

The questions are centered on the doctors around the world who regularly prescribed sedatives and painkillers to Jackson without even seeing him. Among the names are Dr. Arnold Klein, whom Jackson was seeing three times a week before his death.

But there are others. Right now, websites like tmz.com are thrilling to reports from a 2004 police raid on Jackson’s Neverland Ranch that turned up all kinds of prescriptions made out to aliases and Neverland employees.

But Jackson died two weeks ago, so the real investigation will be centered on current doctors and what they were giving Jackson. Klein’s name is the one that keeps coming up as the most contemporaneous. There are no doubt others, from Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.

Investigators might want to look into how Jackson got the drugs he needed when he was in Bahrain from 2005-2006, Ireland in 2006, and Virginia in 2007. Jackson also lived near Alpine, New Jersey in 2007 before returning to Las Vegas.

LAPD Chief Bill Bratton told CNN yesterday that based on the questioning by detectives of those closest to Jackson “we will have an idea of what it is we are dealing (with) — are we dealing with a homicide or are we dealing with an accidental overdose?”

But it’s clear that the LAPD already is thinking murder accidental or otherwise. That’s why the questions are coming from homicide.

Two things are clear though: Jackson admitted to his drug problems in a 2007 deposition. And he was running up bills of $48,000 a month at his local pharmacy. Revisit my reporting on these two important facts: