Jackson doctor: Drug report 'false'

LOS ANGELES, June 28 (UPI) -- A lawyer for Michael Jackson's doctor says reports the doctor injected the pop icon with a powerful painkiller just before Jackson died are "absolutely false."

"There was no Demerol. No OxyContin," Edward Chernoff, who represents Dr. Conrad Murray, told the Los Angeles Times.

Chernoff, a criminal defense attorney based in Houston, was present during Murray's three-hour interview Saturday with Los Angeles police investigators, the Times reported Sunday.

Chernoff told the newspaper Jackson was unconscious and not breathing Thursday when Murray "fortuitously" entered the bedroom at the Holmby Hills mansion Jackson was renting as he prepared for a series of 50 concerts in London, scheduled to begin next month.

"He checked for a pulse," Chernoff said. "There was a weak pulse in his femoral artery. He started administering CPR."

The Times said the account provided by Murray's attorney was consistent with that provided by a source close to the investigation, who said the detectives' interview with Murray turned up "no smoking gun."

Coroner's officials said Jackson had been using prescription drugs and listed his cause of death as "deferred" until more tests are complete, which could take up to six weeks.

Chernoff told the Times AEG Live, which was producing Jackson's "This Is It" concert series, had agreed to pay Murray $300,000 to attend to Jackson.

Jackson's family has had a private pathologist perform a second autopsy on the pop star's body, sources told the Times. The second autopsy was conducted hours after Jackson's body was released to relatives by the county coroner Friday night, the newspaper reported.

The second autopsy could give Jackson's family information more quickly by rushing toxicology tests through a lab within days, said Michael Baden, a former chief medical examiner in New York.