Dr. Conrad Murray left the Los Angeles County jail under sheriff’s escort, avoiding reporters and Michael Jackson fans waiting for his release early Monday.
Murray, who served two years of a four-year sentence for causing Michael Jackson’s death, was driven away in a sheriff’s car for the “safety and security” of the jail, sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said.
The handful of Jackson fans gathered outside the jail accused the Los Angeles County sheriff of showing favoritism to Murray by slipping him out of the jail through a back exit, instead of the door where freed prisoners normally leave.
Murray, who the sheriff’s spokesman described as an exemplary inmate, was kept away from the general inmate population during his two years in the jail. He was also allowed to have liberal use of a telephone inside his cell during his last year.
Murray’s lawyer told reporters outside the jail that he would try to get his medical licenses reinstated in California, Texas and Nevada so he can resume the medical career interrupted by his conviction on the involuntary manslaughter in 2011.
A jury concluded after a two-month trial that Murray’s negligence led to Jackson’s death from an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol.
Murray is also courting publishers to write a book about his time with Jackson, unnamed sources told TMZ. That would put Murray in good company with other noncelebrities who have turned their incarcerations into a book deal. Among them are Amanda Knox, the American acquitted of murdering her roommate in Italy, who upon her release from an Italian prison accepted a $4 million advance for her book, “Waiting to be Heard,” released earlier this year.