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| Florida County Disputes Autopsy in Jail Death |
| By Orlando Sentinel |
| Published: 02/04/2002 |
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Orange County officials are trying to overturn the medical examiner's autopsy results in the death of an inmate while in jail. The goal? To stop a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by the family of Karen Johnson, who a medical examiner has ruled died last June from forced methadone withdrawal. The family notified the county in September that it intends to sue and said this week that the autopsy dispute has only added to relatives' anguish. In the county vs. county petition, filed recently in Circuit Court, Dr. William Anderson's autopsy was called 'flawed, incomplete and inadequate.' The petition asked that the medical examiner turn over Johnson's tissue samples so an unidentified expert can conduct a separate investigation. Although the petition doesn't say what the county thinks caused her death, nurses and others initially said Johnson overdosed on drugs she took in her cell. The Medical Examiner's Office, whose results have been under county scrutiny for months, says it won't hand over tissue samples without the family's permission or a court order. Dr. Shashi Gore, chief medical examiner for Orange and Osceola counties, noted through a spokeswoman that a committee that included four doctors and a toxicologist agreed with Anderson's diagnosis. The county's in-house legal counsel has refused to get involved in the dispute. 'As we discussed, this office cannot provide you with the requested assistance under the circumstances,' deputy county attorney Jeffrey Newton wrote to the Medical Examiner's Office. Johnson collapsed in her cell June 2 after more than 12 hours of vomiting and diarrhea, classic symptoms of methadone withdrawal. She arrived unconscious at Orlando Regional Medical Center and died five days later. Johnson's death led County Chairman Rich Crotty to appoint a task force to address myriad problems at the jail, including medical inadequacies. |
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