The police dept claims to have been involved. The police chief is the county coroner, and he is the one who ordered the autopsy. The police dept paid for the autopsy and pronouncement of death but even though travel expenses are supposed to be listed on the form that the other autopsy expenses were billed on, there were no travel expenses incurred for either the pronouncement of death or the autopsy.
An attorney for Maui County, in response to a request for records that would show either the means of communicating the pronouncement of death or the presence of Dr. Harle on-site for the pronouncement and/or autopsy, said they don’t have any records and to their knowledge nobody else has any records either.
That seems pretty clear to me. Travel expenses are supposed to be billed to the Police Dept. They weren’t, and the Maui Co attorney said that neither they nor anybody else that he knew of had any records which would show Harle present for either the pronouncement or the autopsy itself.
Should have been a piece of cake to prove, since autopsies are supposed to be recorded. (One court case involved someone contesting whether the recording of a Maui County autopsy could be used in court.) Apparently not this one. I wonder why not...
The questions about somebody besides the police dept paying for transportation of Dr. Harle - by charter plane or by any other way - come from 4Zoltan. It’s his theory so you’d have to ask him about this. The records and responses I’ve gotten say it was the Police Dept who should have been charged for that expense, since the place for the billing is right there on the form where all the other autopsy and pronouncement charges were billed to the MCPD. And IIRC the form itself had a heading saying this was for Maui County Police Department, so it isn’t like this was a form that was also used by other counties. The form was intended for Maui County Police Department’s arrangements with that medical company.
OK this part stood out:
“.... Travel expenses are supposed to be billed to the Police Dept. They weren’t,and the Maui Co attorney said that neither they nor anybody else that he knew of had any records which would show Harle present for either the pronouncement or the autopsy itself. ....”
That attorney is parsing words.... he said neither they or anyone else he knew of had any records which would show —Harle— present.
What if it was someone —other— than Harle that did the pronouncement or the autopsy?
The obvious assumption, I would think, was that the doctor caught a ride over, whether by air or sea, with someone already going to Molokai. Since the accident had just happened on the 11th, and the autopsy was performed on the morning of the 13th, there were probably police officers going to Molokai. Since this is all Maui County, I imagine the police have their own means of transportation to access all areas of the county. So why would Dr. Harle bill back the government when she was riding in their boat, plane, or helicopter?