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.........

Newpoint HS Investigation Errupts

Investigations into allegations of misconduct regarding Newpoint HS in Pensacola are now, officially, being initiated by the State.

After I received explosive information about one of our charter schools at 7:45 in the evening on March 25^th, --I passed this information directly over to our attorney and the superintendent of schools.   Last week, I mentioned what I could in two entries into my blog because I was told by multiple insiders that “nothing was being done to address the significant allegations” at this school.

Now, multiple media outlets have picked up on the story I alluded to on my blog.

Like a snowball rolling down a hill, this story is growing--which appears to be exactly what the whistle blowers who initially contacted me wanted.

Rick’s Blog was first, PNJ was next, followed by WEAR channel three’s Ricki Vann.  Next was WCOA, then AM1620.  Early on, I’m told that Pensacola Today and NorthEscambia.com were informed of the allegations but chose not to follow the story.  PNJ was notified, apparently, months ago about some issues at Newpoint according to a source.  PNJ chose not to follow the story at that time.

Since this all went down last Wednesday--I’ve done three radio interviews and had conversations with media outlets from around the state; yesterday I even spoke to a reporter from as far away as Miami!

I keep telling everyone that calls me the same things:  I’m not the school board’s spokesman, I’m not the investigator, I’m just one member of a five member board of constitutional officers, I’m just a guy that received some explosive allegations and passed them along expeditiously to the appropriate authorities.  I continue to receive information from sources, and I continue to pass this information along to the school board’s attorney. 

What I’m also saying to the media is this:  Everyone and every entity that is facing these allegations is innocent until proven guilty, everyone will get due process, and the issue is now getting a thorough investigation.   I’m telling everyone to call the district, call the Board Chair, call the spokesman, call the attorney—yet these folks still call me!

I haven’t and I won’t divulge anything that would ever compromise any investigations; but I also won’t sit silently like a wax statue when nobody else from our district seems willing to even acknowledge the issue and make a statement to anyone in the media------ as my phone simultaneously rings off the hook!!

Keeping the public informed on basic facts can be accomplished (and should be), while at the same time not jeopardizing “active investigations.” That’s why organizations do press conferences.  Hello?  I’m not a private eye, an attorney, a PR spokesman, or a detective –but even I know this.

Sitting in a cone of silence regarding basic, publicly known facts that are useful to constituents when a situation like this erupts only makes the public more and more distrustful and suspicious of the district. 

Look at incidents recently in the Midwest that were handled initially via a “cone of silence”—those incidents were mishandled very badly and information that could have been passed to calm an angry, restless crowd was unnecessarily withheld, leading to significant problems as that whole incident devolved….Information helps in these instances.

NOW INVESTIGATIONS HAVE BEGUN

In Rick’s blog on April 1st, our Deputy Supt. of Schools is quoted stating the district’s investigation commenced two weeks ago.  In the April 3rd PNJ, however, the Superintendent of Schools, in an