Medical examiner of disputed boot camp death autopsy plans appeal

BY MELISSA NELSON
August 25, 2006

ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- A medical examiner who performed a disputed autopsy on a teenager who died after an altercation with guards at a Panama City boot camp, might finish out his tenure at Bay County without disciplinary action despite concerns about his handling of other cases, the state's Medical Examiner's Commission said Friday.

The commission found this month that Dr. Charles Siebert was negligent in performing at least 35 of 698 autopsies it reviewed. Commissioners found Siebert's work was negligent and that he failed "to perform the duties required of a medical examiner."

A three-member commission probable cause panel recommended he be suspended, but the full commission voted to order Siebert, who makes $180,000 a year, pay for his own supervisor until his contract expires.

But commission chairman Dr. Stephen Nelson said Friday that Siebert could tie up the disciplinary action in an appeals process that could last well past June 27, when Siebert's contract expires.

Siebert could continue to perform autopsies and collect his full salary while the appeals are pending.

"It's frustrating, but it's due process and it's what our state statutes provide," said Dr. Nelson said.

Siebert said he disputes the findings and would decide on an avenue of appeal once he receives official notice of the commission's findings.

Although his contract expires June 27, Siebert said he is hopeful he will be reappointed. But he said that might be difficult because his reappointment would need approval from the commission and the governor.

"Since one of the main complainees here is Charlie Crist and he is running for governor, who knows what would happen if he is governor," he said.

Crist in April called for an investigation into Siebert's past autopsies. The Anderson case, which is still under investigation, was not included in the panel's review.

JoAnn Carrin, a spokeswoman for Crist, said she could not comment on the case because Siebert had not yet received his official notice of the commission's decision and not made his own decision about what action to take in response.

Siebert said he believes he is being targeted by the state because of his unpopular findings in the case of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson who died in January after he was manhandled by guards in a videotaped encounter at the Bay County Sheriff's Office Boot Camp.

"I'm still confident that I did a thorough job with that and that my conclusions were correct," he said.

Siebert ruled Anderson's death was caused by complications of sickle cell trait, a genetic blood disorder, and not from injuries caused by the guards. After outcry from Anderson's family and the public, his body was exhumed and a second autopsy by another doctor found Anderson died from suffocation.

Nelson said Friday that Siebert could either appeal the commission's decision through an administrative law judge, a process that could take up to a year, or through an informal process at one of the commission's upcoming meetings. Siebert has 30 days after he receives the commission's official notice to make a decision.

Siebert said he might decide to plead his case before the commissioners because they must approve his reappointment.

"I think it's important to go over things with them, to explain things," he said.

He noted that Dr. Frederick Hobin, an associate medical examiner in Volusia County who wrote the commission's review of his work, criticized him for compiling reports that appeared unprofessional. Hobin wrote that Siebert should have put a space between 2cm to denote 2 centimeters.

But he said Hobin misspelled "Siebert" as "Seibert" 11 times in the report.

However, Nelson said the commission's findings against Siebert were more serious than the style of his reports.

"That isn't the reason he was called on the mat, that certainly isn't where we placed the weight or our decision for disciplinary action," he said.

Hobin declined comment saying it involved an ongoing investigation.

Most of the alleged negligence found by the commission came from Siebert's use of "canned" autopsy reports that describe victims in much the same manner, using the same terminology to detail conditions of organs and other body parts, the panel found.

Among the most egregious errors was a case in which Siebert noted the presence of a "prostate gland and testes" - organs that belong to men - on the body of a young girl.

But Siebert said the error occurred after Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and happened when a transcriptionist typed a report incorrectly and he failed to catch the error.

"Obviously I did not dictate it that way," he said.

Other findings from the commission's report didn't make sense, Siebert said.

For example, the report said he should have measured the diameter of a bullet removed from a body.

"That's the job of a firearms expert. If my measurements differ from the firearms expert, a case could be thrown out of court," Siebert said.

"Obviously there are some errors in there that I could improve on, but there were a lot of things he was picking out as errors and things he was saying were wrong that actually were not wrong."