After days of speculation about his role in the final hours and death of Michael Jackson, the superstar’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, has spoken out through his lawyer.

Ed Chernoff, the doctor’s Houston-based attorney, tells People his client valiantly tried to save the singer’s life – and never injected him with Demerol or prescribed OxyContin.

“If it turns out that Michael had OxyContin in his stomach, it had nothing to do with Dr. Murray,” says Chernoff.

Frantic Efforts
On June 24, he says, his client was asked by Jackson to spend the night at the singer’s house following Jackson’s rehearsal for his new tour at the Staples Center. The next day, when Jackson did not emerge from his bedroom before noon, Murray entered the room and found the singer unconscious – but with a faint pulse.

“Dr. Murray began performing CPR for several minutes as he tried to revive him, unsuccessfully,” Chernoff tells PEOPLE.

Chernoff says Murray – who met Jackson in 2006 when he treated one of his children in Las Vegas and did not become the singer’s personal physician until May – tried to call 911, but because of security arrangements at the house, was unable to get a line out. Murray thought of using his cellphone, but realized he didn’t know the address of Jackson’s house, according to Chernoff. Instead, he screamed for help.

“With Michael still on the bed, he put one hand under Michael’s back for support and compressing with his other hand. He continued to check the pulse, and the pulse remained,” says Chernoff.

A Shot to the Heart
When nobody replied to his urgent cries for help, Murray located a chef in the kitchen. A member of Jackson’s security detail finally called for help.

After the ambulance arrived, says Chernoff, Murray spoke to doctors at UCLA, who instructed the paramedics to administer an epinephrine shot directly to Jackson’s heart in an attempt to revive him.

“Michael continued to have a pulse,” says Chernoff, even as he was taken out of the house and put in the ambulance for the trip to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:26 that afternoon.

Chernoff said that Murray consoled the family as they arrived in the hospital that afternoon, and advised them to have an autopsy done before they signed a death certificate. Later that day, Murray, who at that point was “emotionally and physically exhausterd,” according to Chernoff, spoke to the police for more than three hours.

Then, on the advice of his lawyer, the doctor turned off his cellphone and avoided the press.

According to Chernoff, Murray gave up two cardiac practices, one in Las Vegas and the other in Houston, to attend to Jackson and accompany him to London for his series of summer concerts there.

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Despite reports that Michael Jackson would be laid to rest at his beloved Neverland Ranch, the King of Pop’s dad says otherwise.

“That’s not true,” Joe Jackson told reporters of the Neverland funeral story at a press conferance outside the family’s L.A. compound. He also added that the funeral won’t take place until they get the results from a second autopsy, now underway.

The L.A. coroner’s office conducted an autopsy on Friday, but have deferred the cause of death decision while waiting on toxicology results. Those results are due in a few weeks.

Joe says Michael’s three children are happy and are with other kids. Joe’s wife Katherine was granted temporary custody of them earlier today.

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These days Michael Jackson fans are surely clamoring for anything and everything to do with the King of Pop, and now there’s one more tune they can listen to. EOnline reports that MJ recorded the Isley Brothers’ classic “Shout” in 2001, but it was never released.

The new twist on the old song was recorded at Sony Recording Studios and was co-written by the team of Cyph and Crystal.

“After the recording was done, we could see him dancing to the song,” Cyph, who was introduced to the star by producer Teddy Riley, tells E! News. “He really was feeling that record, but, unfortunately, the record got rail roaded by politics within the album and the dispute between M.J. and Tommy [Mottola], so it got released as a maxi single to R. Kelly’s ‘Cry.’ No one’s heard ‘Shout’ in the U.S.”

Source, Bauer-Griffin

After a report today claimed to have lurid details from Michael Jackson’s autopsy, including descriptions of his body being “riddled with track marks” and his head being almost completely bald, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office has released a statement decrying those details as untrue.

“The report that is being published did not come from this office. I don’t know where the information came from, or who that information came from. It is not accurate. Some of it is totally false,” says the statement.

A British newspaper was the first to publish the bogus information, saying MJ’s body was covered in needle marks, his hair was reduced to peach fuzz and he weighed only 112 pounds.

The real results of the autopsy aren’t due for 4-6 more weeks.

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Michael Jackson was a very beloved pop icon and I can still hear his music blaring throughout the streets.

Celebrities came out at the BET Awards to pay their respects to the legend. OK! Magazine thought it was a fitting tribute to put his final picture on the cover of their latest issue.

Just terrible!

Thoughts?

A custody battle may be brewing over the future of Michael Jackson’s three children. Just four days after the singer’s sudden death on June 25, Jackson’s mother, Katherine, has filed a petition in Los Angeles Probate Court seeking legal guardianship of Jackson’s three children.

“Joe and Katherine Jackson want those children!,” a source close to the family tells People.

Jackson had two kids – Prince, 12 and Paris, 11 – with ex-wife Debbie Rowe. His youngest son, Prince Michael II, 7, was born to an unnamed surrogate. Although Rowe is still the legal parent of the two older children, her next step is unclear.

One Surviving Parent

“Debbie sent her condolences, and said she was not going to do anything about the kids … yet,” the family source tells People. Still, “Joe and Katherine think she’s going to come after them.”

Katherine Jackson’s 22-page petition claims the children “have no relationship with their biological mother” and have been in the care of their grandmother, “with whom they have a long established relationship,” since Michael’s death. A hearing on the petition has been scheduled for August 3.

Experts in California family law say the grandmother’s petition could be granted – as long as Rowe, who is the sole surviving legal parent of the two older children, has no objection. If Rowe does object, the Katherine Jackson could face an uphill battle to prove the kids would be better off in her care, no matter how close she is to them.

“[Rowe] is the biological mother and upon Michael Jackson’s death, technically she has every right in the world to have custody of those kids,” Los Angeles family attorney Michael Trope tells People.

The petition for guardianship was filed in Katherine Jackson’s name alone. Joe Jackson, 80, maintains a separate home in Las Vegas but also spends time at the family house in Encino.

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The Jackson family will go to court Monday to protect their rights to custody of Michael Jackson’s three children, the family’s spokesman has said.

Michael has two children with ex Debbie Rowe –Prince, 12, and Paris, 11. His third child, Prince Michael II, 7, was born to a surrogate (the mother’s identity was never revealed).

Usmagazine.com confirmed last week that the children have been staying with Michael’s mother, Katherine, at the family’s Encino, Calif., estate since their father’s June 25 death.

On Monday’s Today show, the Jacksons’ attorney Londell McMillan said there isn’t “anybody who thinks that there is someone better” than Katherine Jackson to have custody.

Said McMillan, “She is a very loving host of other grandchildren.”

Over the weekend, Katherine was spotted at a Los Angeles Target stocking up on toys, sleeping bags and other supplies.

McMillan added that the family hasn’t heard from Rowe, who gave up her custody rights to the children after she and Jackson divorced in 1999.

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In a statement over the weekend, Rowe’s attorney, Marta Almli, said: “Ms. Rowe’s only thoughts at this time have been regarding the devastating loss Michael’s family has suffered. Ms. Rowe requests that Michael’s family, and particularly the children, be spared such harmful, sensationalist speculation and that they be able to say goodbye to their loved one in peace.”

Jackson’s manager, Frank DiLeo, said on ABC’s Good Morning America that the children are doing fine – but grieving.

He said he was the one who told the children their father had died.

“They knew when I came into the room,” he said. “I’m sure they just saw it on my face. They said, ‘say it’s not true,’ and I just said, ‘I’m sorry.’”

Rowe isn’t holding up well, either.

“She is inconsolable,” her former attorney Iris Finsilver told Us last week. “She will always love Michael and she always considered him a dear friend.”

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