The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Posts lead to ruling against autopsy doctor
His Instagram had videos of postmortem exam, horrified parents allege.
An Atlanta doctor and his clinic have been found liable in a lawsuit filed by parents whose newborn baby was decapitated during a difficult delivery.
A default judgment was entered Wednesday against Dr. Jackson Gates and his business, Medical Diagnostic Choices, after they failed to respond to a civil complaint lodged in September by Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr., records show.
Ross and Taylor claimed Gates, who they hired to conduct a private autopsy in their baby’s death, posted graphic videos of their infant son’s postmortem examination on his Instagram account. The couple said in their Sept. 1 complaint that Gates wasn’t permitted to video the autopsy or publish the footage, and that they felt shock, anger, humiliation and outrage upon learning of the videos on social media.
Gates declined to comment on the case when contacted Thursday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His Instagram account is now private.
A Fulton County judge ruled that Gates and his company are liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and fraud. The judge will decide at a later date how much money Gates and his business must pay Ross and Taylor in damages.
The couple are separately suing Southern Regional Medical Center, Dr. Tracey St. Julian and others in relation to their son’s death at the Clayton County hospital in July 2023. They said St. Julian negligently applied excessive force on the baby’s head and neck during delivery, resulting in the baby’s decapitation, and that there were attempts to hide the details of the death.
Southern Regional has denied all wrongdoing and sought to dismiss that case, which is pending in Clayton County. St. Julian said in court filings that she met the relevant standard of care at all times when delivering the baby.
The Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide.
Ross and Taylor spoke publicly in February about their ordeal. They said they want justice for their son, whom they named Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr.
The baby suffered a sudden and rare birth complication known as shoulder dystocia — a life-threatening condition in which one or both shoulders become locked in the mother’s pelvis, records show.
The couple were not allowed to hold their child and were only allowed to view the baby through a glass window, their attorney, Roderick Edmond, said during a February press conference. He said the baby’s body was arranged by hospital staff to make it look like it wasn’t decapitated, and that Ross and Taylor were encouraged to have the baby cremated.
It wasn’t until several days later, through the funeral home handling the infant’s body, that the couple learned he had been decapitated.
In their case against Gates, Ross and Taylor said they paid him $2,500 for a postmortem examination of their son. The couple said Gates never sought permission to record the autopsy on video, and that no such permission was given.
Gates uploaded a video of the examination to his Instagram account on July 14, 2023, according to the lawsuit. Ross and Taylor said Gates subsequently removed that video, then posted two more videos of their son’s autopsy to Instagram on July 21, 2023.
“These videos show, in graphic and grisly detail, postmortem examinations of the head and body of Baby Isaiah,” the couple said in their complaint.
Ross and Taylor said their attorneys sent Gates a cease-and-desist letter on Aug. 10, 2023, directing him to immediately remove the videos from social media. The complaint doesn’t state whether the videos were removed.