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Michael Jackson impersonator Goward Horton, left embraces a fan outside the Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, August 23. A judge says a preliminary hearing for the doctor charged in Jackson's death will begin January 4. (AP)
A Los Angeles judge has set a January 2011 hearing to weigh whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute Michael Jackson's doctor with involuntary manslaughter over the singer's death.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said prosecutors would have until January 4, 2011 to gather their evidence against Conrad Murray.
The 57-year-old doctor, who was with Jackson when he died June 25, 2009, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in February this year, but is free on a $75,000 (Dh275,479) bond.
Officials have ruled that Jackson died after being injected with a powerful cocktail of sedatives and painkillers, including propofol, which the singer regularly requested from Murray to help him sleep.
At a June hearing, Pastor refused a California Medical Board request that Murray be banned from practicing until the charges against him were resolved. The judge said another court had already barred Murray from injecting patients with strong sedatives, including propofol.
Prosecutors said Monday they expected it would take around two to three weeks for the evidence against Murray to be presented next year. Pastor asked both sides to return to the court for a status hearing on October 26.
The proceedings Monday, which Murray attended, took place at the same courthouse where Jackson's parents Katherine and Joe Jackson last week filed for divorce.
The pair married 60 years ago, but had been separated for several years before the divorce.
Jackson's death sent shockwaves around the world, and family and fans were outraged to learn that the man dubbed the King of Pop was administered a dangerous mix of powerful prescription drugs in the hours before his death.
Murray, who was born in Grenada and grew up in Trinidad before moving to the United States, has denied the charges against him, which were filed after a painstaking seven-month probe involving local and federal investigators.
The doctor, who was the last person to see Jackson alive, has admitted administering drugs to the singer to help him sleep shortly before his death.
He could face up to four years in prison if convicted.
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