Omalu: Sheriff interfered with autopsies
County medical examiner Dr. Bennet Omalu, subject of the movie ‘Concussion,’ announces resignation
Dr. Bennet Omalu on Tuesday announced his resignation as San Joaquin County’s chief medical examiner, saying Sheriff/Coroner Steve Moore’s interference in death investigations has created a legally and ethically questionable workspace.
In the letter filed with county administrator Monica Nino, Omalu alleged Moore engaged in misconduct such as cutting off the hands of corpses without pathologists’ knowledge and blocking physicians’ scheduled pay raises.
“Recently, I became frigidly afraid that in continuing to work under the circumstances Sheriff Steve Moore has created in his office that I may be aiding and abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine,” Omalu wrote. “On many occasions, I met with him privately and provided him written memorandums trying to explain to him that the law does not allow him to insert himself in the duties of a physician unless he is a licensed physician.”
Omalu’s resignation follows that of forensic pathologist Dr. Susan Parson last week. Parson alleged more than 20 episodes of misconduct by Moore between May 25 and Dec. 1, including improperly handling corpses and reclassifying causes of death without due diligence, in a memo of her own.
The memo includes an email from Omalu and Parson to Sgt. Mike Reynolds with the subject line “scheduling of work hours of physicians, physician independence, physician professional judgment and unbiased credibility” sent Aug. 20. In the email, Parson and Omalu object to the sheriff’s office forcing them to surrender planning of their schedules among other conflicts.
“As physicians we beginning to feel extremely intimidated, harassed, threatened and controlled by some of the practices, cultures and traditions of the Sheriff ’s Office,” the email said. “(They) are beginning to erode our independence as physicians and are beginning to influence our professional judgments, analyses, conclusions and opinions on each and every case we do in the office.”
Omalu and Parson’s allegations of Moore’s mismanagement and medically unethical interference were detailed in 113 pages of memoranda released on Monday,
Moore categorically denied all allegations.
“Let me make it very clear: I’m the Coroner,” said Moore. “I have done nothing but ruled on what I believe the official manner of death should be.”
Moore told the radio station KQED that he would sometimes order the hands removed from corpses that were too decomposed to identify so they could be sent to the California Department of Justice’s crime lab for fingerprinting, according to an AP report.
Omalu chronicles several instances in which Moore allegedly changed his findings to cover for officers.
He cites an Aug. 21 case in which a man died from traumatic brain and spinal cord injury suffered during police arrest. When Omalu ruled it a homicide, he alleges, a sergeant called him in.
“He said that the Sheriff wanted to change the manner of death to an accident since it was an officer-involved death,” Omalu wrote. “I was shocked.”
Not so, said Moore. “No one has countermanded anyone’s medical position. No one has countermanded any doctor’s findings.”
However, Moore said, he has had to restrain Omalu from overstepping his authority.
The forensic pathologist’s job is to determine the medical cause of death, Moore said. But the government code authorizes the Sheriff/Coroner to determine the manner of death, be it natural, accident, suicide, homicide or “undetermined.”
The sheriff must make the call based on “the totality of the circumstances,” of which the forensic pathologist’s report is just one part, Moore said.
Every officer-involved death is reviewed in a multi-agency protocol investigation, Moore said.
“If somebody’s getting away with murder I don’t see how,” Moore said. “The investigations are totally conducted outside (the) Coroner’s Office.”
A statement issued by the office of District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said prosecutors do not rely on coroner’s reports when they decide whether to file criminal charges, according to an AP report. The office does its own independent review of the pathology reports as well as reports from other law enforcement agencies.
The doctors also allege Moore wrongly stuck them at the bottom of the Sheriff’s Office pecking order, so they are told what to do or even overruled by officers ignorant of medicine.
Parson details an Aug. 1 drowning. A husband reported finding his wife floating in the pool. Suspicious circumstances clouded the case. The couple had been fighting over his infidelity. He reportedly warned the wife he’d kill her if she tried to take his money. Days before her death, she withdrew money from their joint account.
Autopsy determined acute drug toxicity. The husband had an empty bottle of the fatal drug. She had shoulder injuries consistent with being held under.
But other interpretations were possible. Parson ruled the murky case “undetermined” pending more evidence. When she checked the case later, the cause had been changed to “accidental.”
“This is now the second time (that I’m aware of) where the manner of death classification has been changed without consulting me,” Parson wrote.
“It is entirely possible that there are additional cases,” she added.
The duo’s memos further allege the Sheriff’s Office is rife with deputies so untrained for death scenes that key evidence is routinely omitted from the preliminary reports they send forensic pathologists.
Moore countered that deputies receive six months field training and a manual instructing them on death scene protocols.
The doctors’ place in the hierarchy is necessary so superiors can coordinate the efficient flow of autopsies, Moore said.
The doctors argue medical necessity alone, as determined by them, must govern timing of autopsies so that decomposition does not spoil medical evidence.
Moore said many of the doctor’s allegations are untrue. Of others he said he was unaware. The Sheriff said he has improved Coroner’s Office performance, for instance, by securing money for a new morgue.
“Overall,” he said, “we have run the Coroner’s Office in the manner I believe is most appropriate to how my responsibilities are.”
Omalu will continue serving in his role through March 5, according to his letter of resignation. He has been the chief medical examiner for 10 years and gained nationwide fame for his work uncovering CTE brain damage in football players, which was profiled in the movie “Concussion.”