Death and Lapses A fired medical-examiner employee sues, claiming things stink at the morgue
by Rick Anderson
Seattle Weekly
January 14 - 20, 2004
The King County Medical Examiner’s office investigated 1,683 of the county’s 13,008 deaths in 2002.
THE YEAR 2003 ended with the biggest mystery in the King County Medical Examiner's Office still unsolved: Who stole a baby's remains from the morgue? The prime suspect—in the media, at least—was a custodian named Manuel Franco, 33, who last month pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to time served, then freed. Never charged in the body theft, Franco earlier told Seattle Weekly he didn't take the baby's remains (see "Where Is Baby Perry?" June 18, 2003).
It wasn't the first body to go missing from the coolers. The remains of five people in the past two decades have been permanently or temporarily lost at the morgue, at Harborview Medical Center.
Now former ME investigator Don Halberg has thickened the plot. Not only was the story of the lost baby kept from the public for seven months, he says, office paperwork on the remains was also lost, then replaced as part of a cover-up. Additionally, the cooler area, contrary to county claims, was accessible by outsiders because the door had been broken for years, and a set of keys was stolen from a desk only months before the baby disappeared, says Halberg.
Such screwups supposedly weren't that rare. In just the past few years, body parts have been "misplaced," a person still alive in a hospital was logged as dead, a deceased rock star's identity was mishandled, and boxes of evidence from the Green River serial- murder case were used to prop open a door to a public hallway.
Then there were those internal conflicts, says Halberg, who was also the examiners' union president: An office contest awarding $10 for the most grisly death-scene photos, a boss who showed up at work wearing a bulletproof vest, and a series of labor disputes that included the awarding of more than $150,000 in sexual-harassment settlements.
Halberg, who was fired from his county job in February—the same month the missing baby case was leaked to the media—has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle seeking damages from the county. An ME employee since 1999, he claims he suffered retaliation and eventual termination because of his union activity and for blowing the whistle on mismanagement and misconduct. He says he has 800 pages of evidence, including examiner documents, office memos, and e-mails.
Public Health Seattle-King County, which oversees ME operations, disputes Halberg's claims. But James Apa, spokesperson for health director Alonzo Plough, says neither the department nor the chief medical examiner, Dr. Richard Harruff, can comment on Halberg's specific charges, per county policy on pending litigation. Apa did confirm continuing internal problems at the ME's office, which investigated 1,683 of the county's 13,008 deaths in 2002.
One top official was recently placed on administrative leave for reasons the department won't explain, but, says Apa, it's "part of an internal investigation being conducted by an independent [outside] investigator."
Halberg maintains he was considered a good employee until he intervened in separate sexual-harassment complaints by two female workers. He concedes he was disciplined for mistakes, such as failing to immediately notify Child Protective Services of the death of a child. But he claims he was unfairly punished and labeled a troublemaker for complaining about the conduct and profanity of fellow workers.
He also reported incidents of office theft, vandalism, and security breeches as far back as 2001, a year before Baby Perry was taken, he says. After the county began retaliating as part of a "witch hunt," Halberg says, he began gathering and recording the evidence he is now using to argue his lawsuit.
"The medical examiner's office has long been plagued with mismanagement and security problems," claims Halberg's attorney, David Schoenborn. "Mr. Halberg's blowing the whistle on misconduct made him the target of further retaliation."
Among Halberg's accusations:
*One of the office's lead investigators had a private sideline in crime/trauma scene restoration and cleanup. He passed out fliers in the office that were printed on office equipment during work time, using office paper.
*A top ME official came to work wearing a bulletproof vest but wouldn't explain why, saying only, "It's under control."
*In late 2000, the office announced a contest offering a cash reward for the investigator who brought in the most gruesome picture of a dead body from the prior week. According to an e-mail, the first winner won $10. The contest is apparently no longer being held.
*After Baby Perry's body went missing sometime in May 2002, officials learned that required daily body inventories had not been done for a year and that a cooler door lock had been broken for at least that long. The door to the garage leading to the cooler was left open on a regular basis because of a backed-up drain and noxious gasses.
*In December 2002, an investigator "took possession of a foot" as part of a death investigation but did not log the foot into the case file or post it on an inventory board in the investigators' section. The investigator "didn't tell anyone that the foot was in-house, which subsequently caused considerable confusion." Halberg says the foot was ultimately found in a cooler and logged as required.
*In 2002, Halberg found what he calls "two boxes of missing evidence" from the Green River murders that were being used "for some time" to hold open a door leading into the public hospital hallway.
"A lot of the evidence the office maintained was handled in a haphazard manner," says attorney Schoenborn.
*In a series of 2002 lapses, an investigator logged the death of a Harborview patient into the office computer, but the person was, in fact, alive; a pathologist, during an examination of a body in a suspicious-death case, overlooked the fact that the decedent had been shot; and the identity of Alice in Chains rock star Layne Staley wasn't entered into the office computer or passed down the line, causing "a notable delay in positively IDing the body," says Schoenborn (see "Smack Is Back," Jan. 8, 2003).
The county, while refusing comment, says it will vigorously challenge Halberg's lawsuit.
1 comment:
Too bad our council members don't read "The Weekly".
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