Applied Pharmacy Services was searched this morning, as investigators looked for documents that might give them some insight about how the King of Pop acquired different drugs. A previous warrant executed on Dr. Conrad Murray’s home and office described Michael Jackson as a drug addict.

This is from the LA Times:

Drug Enforcement Administration agents are assisting the LAPD in executing a search warrant at a Las Vegas pharmacy tied to the Michael Jackson death investigation.

Authorities arrived at Applied Pharmacy Services on Flamingo Road this morning to look for documents, including computer files, said Michael Flanagan, the special agent in charge of the DEA’s Las Vegas office. The search should take about an hour.

The warrant and the accompanying affidavit, which are similar to the ones executed last month at the home and office of Jackson doctor Conrad Murray, are sealed, Flanagan said. He declined to comment further on their contents.

We’re slowly putting together all the news about Jackson and his connections to drug use. Earlier reports indicated that Jackson used up to 19 aliases to get access to new prescriptions, and his demand for drugs grew noticeably in the last months of his life. A handful of doctors and health specialists who spoke with Jackson this spring indicated that the singer was struggling with the demanding rehearsals for his planned O2 concert series. He even offered huge sums of money in exchange for drugs like propofol and demerol. What a mess!

Read the gripping account here:

In the morning, when she arrived for work, Chase said she would see the doctor coming down the steps carrying oxygen tanks. When Murray didn’t come downstairs the morning of June 25, “I thought maybe Mr. Jackson is sleeping late,” Chase said.

“I started preparing the lunch and then I looked at my cell phone and it was noon. About 12:05 or 12:10 Dr. Murray runs down the steps and screams, ‘Go get Prince!’ He’s screaming very loud. I run into the den where the kids are playing. Prince (Jackson’s oldest son) runs to meet Dr. Murray and from that point on you could feel the energy in the house change.

“I walked into the hall and I saw the children there. The daughter was crying. I saw paramedics running up the stairs.”

At that point, Chase said, the small group that was gathered — the children, their nanny, a housekeeper and Chase — held hands and began to pray. As paramedics raced up to the room, Chase recalls, “We were all praying, ‘Help Mr. Jackson be O.K.’

“Then everyone was very quiet.”

At about 1:30 p.m. she said security guards told her and other staff to leave the property because “Mr. Jackson was being taken to the hospital.”

When she came outside, she said, ambulances were in the courtyard and a crowd had gathered.

If the Jackson case officially turns into a manslaughter probe — no charges have been filed yet, and police and the coroner’s office are still conducting investigations — prosecutors would have to provide clear evidence that his doctor, or other health-care providers, acted in a reckless or negligent manner, thereby causing the 50-year-old pop icon’s death on June 25.

“Any time you do any lawful act, like the administration of drugs, if you do it in a way that’s reckless or indifferent to its consequences, you can be charged with manslaughter,” said Los Angeles attorney Harland Braun, who is not connected to the Jackson case, but is best known for successfully defending filmmaker John Landis in 1984 against manslaughter charges connected to three stunt-related deaths on the set of “The Twilight Zone” movie. “It’s just like if you’re driving recklessly down the street without regard to people’s safety. It has to be recklessness more than negligence … knowing the danger and acting despite that danger.”

Unlike a murder charge, manslaughter does not require proof of an intent to kill. In Jackson’s case, prosecutors would be looking at whether Murray or another health-care provider took an unnecessary risk by injecting the singer with drugs or providing him with dangerous medication. Read on…

The investigation is far from over, said the source, but doctors ordered to hand over the star’s medical records are not suspects. While homicide charges may be unlikely, investigators have discussed other possible counts against the docs if they administered the potentially lethal drug Propofol to the singer, the source noted.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/michael_jackson/2009/07/20/2009-07-20_slay_raps_unlikely_in_jacko_death__report.html#ixzz0Lo4jqORo

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Thursday that those results are expected to take two more weeks, though he did not specify what is causing the delay. TMZ reported that unnamed sources pinned the delay on incomplete reports from several outside consultants. The final toxicology screen should detail what drugs were in Jackson’s system when he died and could determine whether criminal charges are brought in the case. If police find that the singer died as a result of an overdose of medication administered by medical personnel, that person or persons could face criminal charges.

Although Los Angeles police officials backpedaled earlier this week from reports that the probe into Jackson’s death could become a homicide investigation, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office spokesperson Sandi Gibbons told TMZ on Thursday that the LAPD’s investigation is criminal. (source)