Gastesi calls for Medical Examiner’s Office audit
following reports of bodies transported in pick-up
BY TERRY SCHMIDA
Complaints by residents of a Marathon neighborhood of corpses being casually transported in the back of an unmarked pick-up truck have prompted County Administrator Roman Gastesi to call for an audit into the financial and operational aspects of the Medical Examiner’s Office.
The objections were lodged by neighbors in a condominium complex off Coco Plum Drive, in Marathon, who also apparently documented the March 23 incident in photographs, which were then sent, along with the complaints, to both the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, and the State Attorney’s Office.
The grievances resulted in a meeting between Gastesi, County Attorney Bob Shillinger, Sheriff Rick Ramsey, State Attorney Catherine Vogel, and Clerk of the Court Amy Heavilin, to discuss the body transport issue, as well as other remonstrations lodged against Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Beaver, who is coming up on his first year in his job.
The upshot of the meeting was Gastesi’s verbal request to Heavilin’s office, for the audit, which is allowed for in the M.E. Office’s contract.
“We haven’t done an audit of the Medical Examiner’s Office for quite a while,” Gastesi said recently. “So we thought now would be a good time to do it, to get a baseline of where they’re at.”
The recent incident, and several other similar complaints about the transport of bodies to the M.E.’s Office on Grassy Key, in such an informal manner, were motivating factors, he added.
“Apparently it was an open-air pickup truck that [Beaver] was using, which turned out to be a real attention-getter,” Gastesi said. “I don’t think he’s going to be doing that anymore.”
In fact, Beaver, who at press time was unreachable by phone, told Ramsey during a separate meeting that he would, in the future, clearly identify the truck as an official M.E. vehicle with magnetic signs, and place a cover, or some type of hard shell over the truck bed before undertaking any transportation of bodies.
During that conversation, Ramsey indicated that he also discussed with Beaver comments the latter had made at a recent Leadership Monroe County event, which could be considered disparaging to law enforcement.
Surprisingly, perhaps, no state rules or laws govern the transportation of bodies. Beaver has been using the truck mostly in the Marathon area. In the Upper and Lower Keys, that function is generally outsourced to local funeral homes.
Beaver had been a controversial choice as M.E., when it was revealed to a hiring committee which included both Vogel and Ramsey, that Beaver had been “Baker-Acted” for 72 hours in 2003, following a threatened suicide attempt in Daytona Beach.
That issue was “addressed” during Beaver’s job interview, Vogel said recently.
Beaver is certified to perform forensic, anatomic, and clinical pathology, and worked most recently as the chief forensic pathologist in Alameda County, Calif.
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