No Medical Examiner For Escambia County in Just Three Days?

A dispute over pay has led to the abrupt resignation of our area's Medical Examiners Offices which will happen in three days...

This past Summer, fireworks erupted over some financial disputes between the four counties of the First Judicial Circuit (Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and Walton) and the Medical Examiner (ME) for this area.

We were actually sued by the ME.

The issue revolved around the payments to the Medical Examiner's Office, fees withheld from the counties by the ME's office, and other financial issues that raised some concerns (notably the high salary of the ME herself, paid by public sources.)

Fast forward to late yesterday afternoon, with the end of the fiscal year upon us, everyone going a million different directions with the Kavanaugh drama playing out in the media---and a couple of HUGE emails are dumped in our lap.

The first one, from the attorney for Dr. Andrea Minyard, casually drops the news that the ME plans to close up shop in four days.  Reading between the lines, it appears this is about compensation for the position.  from the email...

"Although I have been told on multiple occasions that a multi-county contract had been circulated among counsel for the four counties, no contract has been presented to the Medical Examiner. Last week, a letter proposing to pay $400,000 for a minimum of two medical examiners was received by my office. The letter suggests that this is a reasonable number given information that the counties have collected; however, that information was not provided, and we are quite skeptical that any credible information would indicate that this is a reasonable amount for a Board Certified Forensic Pathologist serving as Chief Medical Examiner and one associate medical examiner, much less the two needed in District One. In fact, Dr. Minyard's current associate is paid $200,000, and he is not Board Certified. Thus, it appears that Dr. Minyard will be closing the office of the Medical Examiner at the end of her current contracts." 

State Attorney Bill Eddins immediately responded with an email describing the catastrophic consequences of NOT having a ME for the area.  From Bill Eddins' email:

"As you can see from the email, Dr. Minyard plans to resign at midnight on Sunday, September 30, 2018.This will create turmoil for the criminal justice system.  In addition, there are many other duties of the Medical Examiner’s Office that will not be provided to the general public effective Monday, October 1, 2018.You have the responsibility and authority to provide a Medical Examiner for the First Circuit.  Please make immediate arrangements to do so.  Some of the immediate needs for my office is to have a Medical Examiner available to conduct autopsies where homicide is suspected.  In addition, arrangements need to be made for body removal and body storage awaiting autopsy.  In addition, in my opinion, it is necessary for a Medical Examiner or their staff to be immediately available to respond to homicide scenes.  If no arrangements are made, this service will end on September 30, 2018 at midnight.  Please make immediate arrangements for these duties. Additionally, as a result of Dr. Minyard’s resignation, there will be no staff or facilities available to provide any of the other services customarily provided by the Medical Examiner’s Office.The dispute between the counties and the Medical Examiner’s Office has been ongoing for several months and needs to be resolved.  However, in view of the turmoil, disruption and lack of services that will occur on October 1^st, I request that the counties immediately offer to continue payment of the Medical Examiner under the terms and conditions that have been ongoing for many years.  This is the only solution to this problem that I am aware of.  I make this request for the time necessary to resolve the dispute or have an orderly transition to another Medical Examiner." 

High-$Dollar contract disputes:  Not just for athletes, actors, news anchors, and entertainers anymore.........