Former Michael Jackson physician Conrad Murray back in Las Vegas, preparing to resume practice

Former Michael Jackson doctor back in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — The doctor facing a manslaughter charge in singer Michael Jackson’s death has returned to Nevada to resume his medical practice and await trial, his representatives said Wednesday.

Dr. Conrad Murray was in Las Vegas making arrangements to work from another physician’s office pending an April 5 evidentiary hearing in Los Angeles, said Miranda Sevcik, spokeswoman for Murray and his lawyer, Edward Chernoff.

Chernoff vowed in a Web posting that Murray “is going to keep practicing medicine.”

“We’re not sharing the location because the doctor’s primary concern is for his patients’ privacy,” Sevcik said from Houston.

Murray moved his practice, Global Cardiology Associates, out of a Las Vegas office building in August, said Mary Russell, property manager for the building across Flamingo Road from Desert Springs Hospital.

Murray, a 56-year-old cardiologist, also continues to operate the medical practice in Houston that he resumed in November, Chernoff said.

Murray is licensed to practice medicine in Nevada, Texas and California, although the California Medical Board is preparing to seek removal of his license there.

The Nevada Board of Medical Examiners has no history of disciplinary action against Murray, who obtained a Nevada medical license in 1999, said Douglas Cooper, interim board executive. Murray’s license is set to expire June 30, 2011.

Cooper said he could not disclose if any new investigations involving Murray were under way.

“He has an active license in the state of Nevada,” Cooper said.

Murray pleaded not guilty Monday in Los Angeles to an involuntary manslaughter charge carrying the possibility of up to four years in prison.

Cooper said Nevada authorities were aware that as a condition of Murray’s release on $75,000 bail, a judge in Los Angeles barred him from administering any anesthetic agent, specifically the drug propofol.

The Los Angeles coroner cited propofol as the cause of Jackson’s death, with other drugs as contributing factors.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz also ordered Murray to surrender his passport, after a prosecutor suggested he might flee to his native Grenada or to Trinidad, where he has a child.

Murray was with Jackson when the 50-year-old pop singer died June 25 in a rented Bel Air mansion. Murray had been hired to look after Jackson’s health during a comeback tour. He told police he gave Jackson propofol and other sedatives to help him sleep.

Chernoff has said nothing Murray gave Jackson should have killed him.