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See, "pressure" does happen.

orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-locmorgue20082002aug20.story
Orange pathologist resigns in dispute
By Henry Pierson Curtis
Sentinel Staff Writer

August 20, 2002

A pathologist caught up in a controversy over the death of an Orange County Jail inmate has resigned, accusing his boss and county administrators of undermining the integrity of the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner's Office.

Dr. William Anderson says Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Shashi Gore pressured him to change his finding in the June 7 death last year of Karen Johnson, who died from methadone withdrawal.

"What he said was, 'We're going to have to change this diagnosis. They [county officials] have an expert looking at this case, and the expert says we're wrong,' " said Anderson, chief deputy medical examiner for 10 of his 12 years in the office.

Reached at home, Gore denied the accusation.

"That's not correct. Impossible," Gore said, adding that he agreed with Anderson's assessment when he presented the case to his colleagues before issuing the cause of death.

Earlier in the day, before Anderson specifically named him as the one who pressured him, Gore laughed at the general allegation and denied that anyone could influence the Medical Examiner's Office.

"There was never any direct or indirect inference from me or my office, and I'm not aware of anyone else interfering in his decision-making capability," Gore said, promising to investigate.

Anderson, the only physician at the Medical Examiner's Office to hold the profession's top rating as a board-certified forensic pathologist, said Gore approached him after the cause of death was issued. He said at least one other staff member would be willing to give a sworn statement that Gore wanted Johnson's cause of death changed.

Johnson died three days after being booked into the jail.

The staff agreed that she died from "precipitous withdrawal from methadone" after Anderson found no other drugs in her body or condition to explain her death.

Three years before Johnson's death, the county paid a record lawsuit settlement of $3 million to the family of another female inmate who died of methadone withdrawal. Methadone is a legal drug used by addicts to control craving for narcotics.

In the wake of Johnson's death, the county has allowed inmates who have been prescribed methadone before their arrests to receive it in jail.

On Monday, an attorney hired by Johnson's family accused county officials of witness-tampering upon learning of Anderson's resignation.

"It's criminal," E. Clay Parker of Orlando said.

"Since one agency in government has testified honestly that she died as a consequence of the neglect of another branch, they are out to undermine his credibility."

Parker negotiated the $3 million settlement for the 1997 death of inmate Susan Bennett. No suit has been filed in Johnson's death.

"They have in wholesale fashion either fired, gotten rid of quietly or accepted the resignation of others," Parker said by telephone from Alabama. "And those that stood up, the county has sought to undermine and hold up to public ridicule."

Anderson's resignation is effective Sept. 30. He has signed a contract to work as a pathologist in Sarasota.

He first complained publicly of outside interference in July, after the county opened an investigation into reports he did private work at the morgue on Lucerne Terrace. But on Monday, Anderson said he voiced concerns about county pressure within weeks of Johnson's death, including to Dr. Steve Nelson, head of the state Medical Examiners Commission.

Orange County spokesman Steve Triggs said no one has tried to influence Anderson's finding.

Public Defender Robert Wesley applauded Anderson's work.

"He was always a straight shooter and a fine scientist," Wesley said, saying his office would likely hire Anderson now as an expert witness. "He's beat me an awful lot of times."

Doris Bloodsworth contributed to this report. Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at 407-420-5411 or hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com.

Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel