Dr. Oleske Informs DOMES She is Initiating Litigation

Dr. Deanna Oleske, the interim District 1 Medical Examiner who earlier this year had a tussle with some local funeral home directors, has now officially notified the District One Medical Examiner Support (DOMES) board that she is suing said funeral home directors.  She indicates litigation is commencing due to some letters written to the county earlier this year (by multiple local funeral home directors) describing allegations of barbaric treatment of corpses.  These letters  subsequently made their way into the press, and these letters  ultimately led to some better communication(s) between the ME's office and the funeral homes.

Dr. Oleske strenuously denied the allegations in the letters at the time, as did her operations director Dan Schebler.

 Although it seems everyone knew this litigation had commenced, apparently the folks that serve on the DOMES board may not have been aware--or made aware officially.

 They're aware now.

 Although the Escambia BCC is not being sued so far as I have been told, we are getting bombarded with public records requests from the Medical Examiner's lawyers.  The press and the ME and her staff have tried to argue that the letters were somehow connected to Escambia County's rejection of the Doctor's "We must have a new facility outside of Escambia County" arguments.  I believe we can get functionality in the current spaces with about a $2-$3 Million investment rather than a $20-$30 Million investment in new facility outside of Escambia County.  The one issue (alleged mistreatment of corpses) has nothing to do with the other (new facility) so far as I am concerned. 

 So, we will see where this all ends up.  Meanwhile, I have been told by a credible source that the Medical Examiner, Dr. Oleske, has put her "name in the hat" and applied to be the district 2 Medical Examiner in Tallahassee.  We will see what happens if she gets tapped for that position.  My understanding is the D2 ME's office is in a Quonset Hut type of PEB--think Gomer Pyle's Bunk Room Facilities--not a modern, large, state of the art facility the likes of which is being sought for Santa Rosa County by Oleske.  Also, a source familiar with operations of the D2 office reports that over there in that Circuit--the ME (who I am told is retiring) does not have in-house investigators but rather outsources that function to the local sheriff's office; staffing levels there are smaller than here.

 Lots of change coming if Oleske happens to be offered that job.

More to come.  See her letter from yesterday, below.

 

 

 

Why Not Just Support a New Facility in Santa Rosa County?

"If you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need!"

I've now had a number of folks ask me about why it is I don't "support" building a brand new medical examiner's office in Santa Rosa County.

And I have answered them with logic, not emotion (contrasted with one local morning radio DJ/entertainment host who apparently can't do this as he attempts, fecklessly and unsuccessfully, to weaponize this issue against the BCC with emotion-laden faux arguments in support of Escambia County Taxpayers spending upwards of $15 Million outside of Escambia County on a new facility when we can spend a fraction of that amount and meet the facility requirement here in the existing location).  

So this is my response, to a constituent on this issue, below:

"XXX,

 Thanks for the email and for the compliments on efforts to increase public access at beaches in Perdido Key.  With respect to the DOMES issue--it is fairly cut and dried-for my vote.  We can spend $3 Million at the current facility to expand the coolers, improve the spaces, add additional space and viewing areas as well as autopsy stations.  I know this because I went there and toured the site and the county is already proactively fixing some of the issues at this current location.  The alternative is to spend ten times as much, easily $30 Million in today's construction cost altered universe---which is untenable for my vote.  It is all about meeting the requirement.  What is the requirement?  Also--the vast majority of death in this district requiring an autopsy (not all deaths require one, only about 20%, XXX) occur here in Escambia County.  So for many good reasons including the two I have listed above, the function needs to remain here in Escambia county.  I am not opposed to re-opening the annex in Okaloosa County as that might be prudent to do perhaps one day per week there.

 But no, I am not going to ask Escambia taxpayers to spend $15 Million (our proportionate share of the costs for a new facility) building a "NEW" facility in Santa Rosa County when we can spend a fraction of that amount and meet the ME's requirement.

 It's like the Rolling Stones:  You can't always get what you want, but you'll get what you need."

 

MASSIVE Public Records Request Made of Several Commissioners

Friday afternoons are made for document dumps.  Yes, especially long holiday weekends.

Put out information that is not flattering at 4:59PM on the Friday before the long three day weekend.  

That happens.

The new phenomenon?  Make MASSIVE records requests of public officials the Friday before the long weekend.  

Looks like we have had two separate requests from two separate individuals for two unrelated matters blow up over the weekend.   

Luckily for me--I didn't get this one until this evening.  My weekend was amazing--no knowledge of this one till today.  And really, nothing to see here, no smoking gun, no there there.  Just lawyers doing what they do.  Ho hum.

I'm sure this one is simply residual hurt feelings over my post on the outrageous claims made about mistreatment of corpses locally by funeral directors....

The other one I knew was coming.....it will be an easy one, too..... 

 But WOW!  Take a look at this pariticluar request, below.  

This one may take a minute.  

And are some of these requested items even public records in the first place??  This one will be expensive and time consuming, I'm going to guess.

The new thing replacing Friday afternoon "Document Dumps":  "Friday Fishing Expeditions."

 

On 1370 WCOA's "Real News with Rick Outzen" Today: Latest on Medical Examiner vs. Funeral Director Claims

 

Rick Outzen called yesterday and invited me to appear on his popular morning drive news program "Real News with Rick Outzen" this morning at 7:00.  He wanted to discuss the issues surrounding the recent claims by the Medical Examiners that there is no basis to the complaints by several funeral home directors.

A real strange story where apparently I am the bad guy for publishing some public record emails sent to my office with outrageous accusations that affect the families and loved ones of the constituents I represent.  And I was very skeptical about the veracity of these claims----- which I stated in my post.

Come to find out one of the funeral directors who wrote theses salacious, scathing letters trouncing the ME's office and reputation has now had a change of heart and wishes he would have never even written the letter.  He all but recanted what he wrote. He feels really "bad" about it.

How weird is that?  Was it true what he wrote?  Will someone get around to asking him that question??

Meanwhile, I've been subsequently contacted by another funeral director who specifically does NOT recant what he wrote and who believes things are improving but there are still issues with that ME's office.

And then I received a gruesome account via email of how another body was "butchered" by the medical examiner's office.  This one, received just yesterday, is so gross and distrurbing I am not even going to publish it.  It is stomach turning, nauseating, and heartbreaking for the grieving family member who experienced it.

So I don't know what is going on, but it sounds as if there is still some work to be done to rectify all the issues.  Meanwhile, folks ought to be careful about crying wolf then feeling bad about it, because when I get stomach-truning accounts like those letters sent to me in my official capacity----yeah, I am going to talk about it and blog about it.

Had I not done so, the media would have never covered it and we would not yet be close to a solution to the problems--which at least we now appear to be BECAUSE of the publicity this gory episode received.

Rick and I had a good discussion, which I will link here once he publishes the podcast.

New Medical Examiner Facility Proposal Could be a Step in the Right Direction

Everyone everywhere who takes the time to tour the current state of our Medical Examiner's spaces in Escambia County knows one thing.  The spaces are deficient, inadequate, and undersized.

This was painfully evident when I toured the facility in 2021.  We also discussed the facility's deficiencies during one of my coffee with the commissioner events  in 2021.  We have long known there is a problem.

The difficult thing now is finding a way forward in solving this issue that works for all four counties that must fund this essential (and expensive) service.  Many have worked hard at a compromise.

The approach that didn't work:  Attempts by some from other counties to dictate to Escambia County what we should do.  Those sorts of overtures fell on deaf ears.

Because Escambia County is where most of the deaths occur, so naturally it makes sense for the ME's office to be located here.  At our latest meeting where this was discussed, a commonsense plan to expand the current ME location footprint with additional cooler space (desperately needed) and additional office and parking spaces was put forward as a workable, interim solution.  And those plans have subsequently moved forward.

In speaking with a local professional in the funeral home industry about this, some salient points were imparted to me:   "Jeff, we have the most death here in Escambia County.  Even if it is someone from the other counties, if they are really sick they end up over here in Escambia County at one of the big three hospitals where unfortunately many of them die.  In addition to that, there are folks from Baldwin County that end up in our hospitals here and many of them die here, too.  So, in my business, I see that most of the death happens here, so is it really prudent to be driving over to a county to the East with bodies from Escambia County?  I mean, I'll do it--but it will put an additional cost on the families because there are costs associated with transporting bodies."

For my part ----my thinking on this has been: I believe the ME office should be modernized, it should be improved, and additional space and cooler capacity should be added.  But it should be added here--because this is where most of the crime deaths, overdose deaths, and hospital/hospice deaths happen--let alone we in Escambia are the population center of the circuit and therefore have the highest percentage of deaths from natural and all causes.  By a longshot.  The current location of the ME facility is where it should be because of this.

Is this ideal for the other four counties, for Walton County?  No, it isn't.  But the geographic realities of the layout of this four county circuit is what it is---and in other parts of the country even larger "geographic" areas are similarly serviced by one standalone ME facility. In some cases even smaller facilities like the one in Leon county, for instance, which is a metal prefabricated/preengineered building (PEB).

With this as the backdrop--now comes a new proposal from Craig Coffey--Deputy Administrator for Okaloosa County and currently the chairman of the four county medical examiner support entity, "DOMES."  Coffee's newest proposal could be step in the right direction--as it at least recognizes the necessity of having ME capability in Escambia County.   Where I think it needs further tweaking is that the facility in Santa Rosa should be smaller than 17,000 feet and it should be the annex, NOT Escambia county.  

The rest of the proposal, particularly the percentages of payment responsibility, look good to me.

This proposal, below, will be discussed tomorrow at the regular BCC meeting.