Coroner: Legal advice led to redacting information

Pike County Coroner David Kessler said he was concerned about the families’ feelings in the public release of final autopsies in the mass slayings of eight people last April.

But Kessler said in a deposition filed on Tuesday with the Ohio Supreme Court that it was the advice of legal counsel, including the state attorney general’s office, that directed how redactions were made in the autopsy reports for the seven adults and one teenager who were shot to death in four homes near Piketon on April 22, 2016.

The Columbus Dispatch filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court last year, arguing that the autopsy reports are public record and cannot be withheld or redacted. Kessler’s deposition was taken last Friday. The Cincinnati Enquirer has filed a similar lawsuit, also seeking release of the autopsies without redactions.

Heavily redacted versions of the final autopsies for those connected to the Rhoden family were released last fall. Among the information blacked out for all victims were toxicology results that would have shown any use of drugs or alcohol, as well as evidentiary information about injuries to the victims except for their gunshot wounds.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office contends that his office needs to withhold information from the final autopsies to protect confidential lawenforcement investigative information. No arrests have been made in the mass slaying.

One of the victims, Christopher Rhoden Sr., “was operating a large-scale drug-growing operation,” DeWine’s office has said. Investigators also believe that multiple attackers might have been involved in the fatal assaults.

Kessler said in his deposition that he met with Rhoden family members before issuing a statement in July to the media, saying: “I do not want to release any information that might impede the criminal investigation or the families (sic) grieving process.

“I met with the next of kin of all the deceased, answered their questions, and after preliminary autopsy, and at that point, they were not wanting information to get out in the public exactly how things happened.”

Kessler said legal counsel from DeWine’s office recommended redacting some of the autopsy information. He said he also took into account, from his experience, how the release of the information would impact the investigation being performed by the Pike County sheriff’s office, but did not directly consult with that office on the redactions.

“I reviewed and approved the redactions,” Kessler said.

In addition to Christopher Rhoden, 40, those killed were his ex-wife, Dana Manley Rhoden, 37, with whom he had reconciled; their sons, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20; their daughter, Hanna Rhoden, 19; Frankie’s fiancée, Hannah Gilley, 20; Chris Sr.’s brother, Kenneth Rhoden, 44; and Gary Rhoden, 38, a cousin to Chris Sr. and Kenneth.

Seven of them were shot in the head and multiple times. Kenneth, whose body was the last one found, died from a single gunshot wound in his head.