MJ & Accomplice
The physician who has been charged in Michael Jackson’s apparent murder, Dr. Conrad Murray has appointed a scary legal team consisting of some of the best attorneys one can find for criminal defense cases:
… lead lawyer, Ed Chernoff [is] a partner at criminal defense firm Stradley, Chernoff & Alford in Houston… His firm’s cases have run the gamut of criminal defense, including assault and domestic violence, sex offenses, drunken driving, drug charges, theft and property crimes. He is handling Murray’s defense along with his firm’s other partners, Matthew Alford and William Stradley. Chernoff is a 1987 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center.
In recent weeks, Murray has added two lawyers in California to his defense team: Michael Flanagan and Joseph Low.
Flanagan, a partner at Glendale, Calif.-based Flanagan, Unger, Grover & McCool, is no stranger to celebrity clients. He recently defended Britney Spears against criminal misdemeanor charges related to driving without a license and Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Ronald Belisario, who pleaded not guilty in August to misdemeanor drunken driving.
… Low, a solo practitioner in Long Beach, Calif., represented Nicole Alvarez, Murray’s girlfriend, when she testified before a grand jury in Los Angeles a few months ago. He confirmed to The National Law Journal that he now is on Murray’s legal team.
Low said that he tries a lot of cases, especially major crimes like drug possession and murder. Last year, Low represented Marine Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, who was charged by military prosecutors with murdering an unarmed Iraqi during battle in Fallujah. Nelson pleaded guilty in September to dereliction of duty; he received an honorable discharge and murder charges were dismissed. In 2007, Low represented another Marine, Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, who was acquitted of murdering an Iraqi civilian in Hamdaniya but convicted of larceny and housebreaking. Magincalda was sentenced to time served.
Low, a former Marine, holds a master’s degree in biochemistry and graduated in 1997 from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. His firm maintains additional California offices in Beverly Hills, San Diego, Torrance and Cardiff By The Sea.
Murray was and is certainly confident he will get off this rap with little or no punishment. That’s why he gave MJ those drugs that could be detected and helped him kill himself. This is the sorry state of the American legal system – commit any crime you want and you can get away with it with the right legal team on your side.
As an aside, he might have done the whole wide world a huge favor by ridding us of MJ. I say we should dismiss the case and actually reward Dr. Murray for a job well done.
