Judge Rules Against Medical Examiner in Defamation Lawsuit

We received news late yesterday afternoon that the Lawyer for Medical Examiner Deanna Oleske was handed a fairly significant loss in the circuit court--as the Judge locally granted the defendants' motion to dismiss in suit filed by the Medical Examiner against local funeral home directors.

This comes after a long running dispute between the Medical Examiner and a couple of funeral home directors who had pointed out some issues with the way bodies were being treated by the Medical Examiners office.

Those issues, to the best of my knowledge, have since been addressed.

Regardless, litigation was initiated against several funeral homes by the lawyer for the Medical Examiner.  And it dragged on and on and on.  LOTS of public records requests have been made and fulfilled.

Now, it looks like this is winding down nicely.

Yesterday, the below ruling came out.  Looks like this one is all but wrapped up in favor of the funeral home directors that were the targets of the lawsuit.  This is a good outcome, in my opinion.

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.

 

 

 

We Demand Your Internet Search Histories: from Every Device You Own!

 They want it all--every item "searched-for" from every computer or device we own.  In addition to thousands and thousands of documents from the county based upon hundreds of search terms that will require a superhuman (and expensive) effort to find, produce, analyze, and redact.

Yes, these are the demands being made of multiple commissioners in the wake of a lawsuit filed 175 miles away from Pensacola by the medical examiner against two area funeral home directors.

And now commissioners are getting dragged into this spat like dolphins caught in a longline tuna fishing hunt.

And they are requesting the search histories from four commissioners from every computer and electronic device we own.  What??

How would one even capture such data?  I have no idea.  But more importantly--these sorts of things are not public records and more importantly are not germaine to this fight.  I would venture a guess that production of such personal items would require a search warrant and probable cause that an actual, serious crime was committed before such broad brush, invasive, Orweillian type of demands would ever be countenanced.  I mean, this is the sort of thing FBI gets from google to investigate suspects arrested on suspician of serial killings, like that weirdo in New York --Rex Heuermann.

I mean--as crazy as our country and some litigation is getting today in some cases-----and it is chilling------this request is just way too broad and onerous.  

Yes, yes.  I know some are upset that letters were sent and published describing hideous things happening to bodies and these letter writers' personal/professional opinions on supposed mistreatment of these bodies.  I get that.  I read the letters.  But these letters were sent and so far as I understand it many of the allegations were true which prompted some reforms in some processes at the ME office.  That's a good outcome, right????

But no.  Now we are attempting to do a scorched-earth, take no prisoners, gigantic gill-net fishing expedition because somebody got her feelings hurt.  Garbage.

Thankfully  the county produced a four-pager yesterday to request the judge to quash this nonsensical, ridiculous, outrageous "demand" by the Medical Examiner's lawyer.  Read it, 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.

Was it True--Or Was I Right and it Wasn't True?

Those that do a rain dance should not be upset when they get wet....

Yesterday afternoon I got a call and a text from the AM 1620 News producer asking my opinion about the latest "revelation" about the Medical Examiner.  Apparently, the Medical Examiner was on Andrew Tallman McKay's show yesterday morning along with a remorseful funeral director.  I told him I don't listen to the show, didn't hear it, didn't know what happened.

Later in the day, I got a call from the PNJ.  Same topic.  The reporter texted me a podcast of the conversation.

Then this morning I get a text from Channel 3.  Same issue.

So I held my nose and listened to the podcast.

Here's the takeaway:  The funeral directors sent letters to the county making outrageous, unbelievable accusations that were graphic, salacious, and incredible.  They were also public records the minute we received them.

I posted excerpts to this blog because these allegations were so out of the ordinary.  As is typically the case, the media outlets in town who constantly mine my blog for story ideas picked up the story and ran with it.

And now, come to find out, at least one of these funeral directors regrets sending the letter.  He says he wishes he would not have sent it.  He all but recanted.

That is interesting, because I thought these allegations were hard to believe and I said so in my original post.  

Looks like my suspicion has been supported---and none of these allegations are true.  Things are perfect and "nothing to see here, move along."

Glad to hear that, because if I get multiple allegations like that from reputable businesses in town on a very sensitive topic of interest to my constituents--I will likely blog about it so my constituents know.  And often times the media will pick this up and run with my topic--reaching an even wider audience.  Good.

But the lingering head scratchers on this topic for me are now two-fold.  

1.)  Why write a letter and make accusations that are false?  Why did this funeral director do this?

2.)  Why get mad at me, a public official that blogs important topics of interest---when my blog has a limited number of viewers when juxtaposed with WEAR's massive audience---and most people saw this story once they (WEAR) picked it up.  And the PNJ.  So why is this guy and the ME upset with me?

Seems ridiculous to me---writing something apparently that was not true and sending it to the county commissioners in the hopes nobody ever reads it???  Huh??  What????  Makes no sense at all.

Sounds like buyer's remorse to me.  Better yet:  Sounds like these guys did a rain dance and are mad when it started raining and they got wet.

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.

A Rough July in Escambia County....

Escambia County has seen an all-time record number of deaths in the month of July, 2021.  The number of death investigation cases in the D1 Medical Examiner's office is up nearly 70% over July, 2020.

The members of the board of county commissioners recieved an email report of conditions at our District 1 Medical Examiner's Office in Pensacola at Sacred Heart Hospital.  The Medical Examiner's office has seen a dramatic increase in deaths throughout the four county district, with a notable spike in Escambia county in particular.  July has been particularly rough in Escambia County.....From her email:

Gentlemen, 

 July has been quite a month at the District 1 Medical Examiner's Office. We hit an unfortunate record with 130 postmortem examinations, the doctors signed over 160 death certificates, and the office investigated about 300 deaths. It's not even the end of the month yet. We've never, ever had a month like this and the staff are working the equivalent of 2 people. 

 Escambia county is almost entirely responsible for this July crush we are feeling. Compared to July 2020 -- Escambia had 70% more cases in July 2021. (Walton county has also had a substantial increase in percentage but their relative number is still low.) 

 Escambia's increase in non-natural deaths is a substantial outlier. Of the 6 homicides I had this month, 5 were from Escambia county (there is likely a true total of 7 homicides, 2 cases are currently pending more information). In 2020 Escambia had 2 homicides. (of note: I personally had the unlucky week with 6 homicides)

 Most of our July autopsies for Escambia are pending toxicology testing  -- this means that the increase in cases is most likely from drugs (but also homicides, pedestrian fatalities, and child deaths). Which is the same trend of a 60-65% increase in drug deaths that I cited a couple of months ago. I also signed a couple of death certificates this month that were sequelae of long term intravenous drug abuse -- bacterial endocarditis / sepsis. 

 The workload from Escambia county is so rapidly increasing in case load -- that it alone needs 3 doctors and 25 staff to adequately and effectively investigate these deaths. 

 Our current situation with regards to the facilities has significantly degraded since the Chair and Vice Chair last visited. These details are best shared in a conversation rather than in an email. 

 On a positive note -- Sacred did agree to the $1k a month rent adjustment for the remaining space that we need to operate the morgue ($14.55 SF vs. $23 SF). They are also waiving the first 2 months of rent in our new lease. 

 We really need that building. I sincerely hope that the Chair and Vice Chair can help me get the other counties on board. Whatever you need me to do. But at this point, I need your help getting some action and financial commitment from the other counties to go forward. 

 Thank you for passing the budget amendment and the help you all have given us thus far. 

 We are looking forward to working with Mr. Gilmore as our new DOMES board member. 

 As always, I am available any time to discuss. I am the doctor on service again next week, so afternoons are always best. 

 Thank you, 

DAO

 

58th Coffee With the Commissioner Event this coming Wednesday

 

We will have our 58th Coffee with the Commissioner event this coming Wednesday, February 10^th, 2021 from 6:30-7:30 AM. 

We will have County Administrator Janice Gilley, Emergency Manager and Public Safety Director Eric Gilmore, and special guest First Judicial Circuit Medical Examiner Dr. Deanna Oleske. 

We will be discussing the ongoing response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, our county COVID-19 numbers, and an in-depth conversation with Dr. Oleske about the impacts the Pandemic has had on the Medical Examiner’s office and her staff and facilities 

To join the meeting, go to the following Facebook page at 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 10th and watch the live stream: www.facebook.com/CommissionerBergosh/ Residents are encouraged to send virtual questions and comments they would like to discuss with District 1 Commissioner during the event through Facebook.For more information, contact District 1 Aide Debbie Kenney at 850-595-4910 or district1@myescambia.com. For District 1 updates, follow @MyDistrict1 on Twitter.