MAHONING COUNTY Undone autopsy reports cause stir

The autopsies are done, but they haven't been reduced to a final written report.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- When Dr. Jesse Giles left Mahoning County nearly a year and a half ago for a new job in Florida, he left more than 80 unfinished autopsy reports.
One of them involves the victim in a capital murder case, and that's what finally brought the issue to light.
Dr. Giles, the county's former forensic pathologist, has apparently refused to complete the reports until he gets paid for unused vacation time. The coroner, Dr. David Kennedy, has refused to hand over the check, for nearly $10,000, until the reports are done.
"I wanted these things done and he wanted his money," Dr. Kennedy said Tuesday.
Standoff ends
The standoff was ended last week by Judge James C. Evans, who ordered that Dr. Giles finish the capital-case report and get it to prosecutors immediately. The prosecutor's office has recommended that Dr. Kennedy pay Dr. Giles the money he is owed and end the dispute.
"We can't have this going on," Assistant Prosecutor Jay Macejko said last week.
Dr. Giles, who now works in Jacksonville, Fla., could not be reached to comment.
The problem arose about three weeks ago during preparation for the trial of Lance Lynch, 25, of Chicago Avenue, who faces charges including aggravated murder in the November 2001 death of Robert Mahar, 39, of New York. The trial is scheduled for May 3.
Prosecutors said Mahar was a truck driver who bought drugs from Lynch when he passed through Youngstown. They say that when Mahar couldn't come up with $600 he owed Lynch for drugs, Lynch took him to his house, tied him to a pole, repeatedly beat him and eventually shot him.
City litter department workers found Mahar's body on Atkinson Avenue with duct tape on his hands and mouth.
When lawyers asked Dr. Kennedy to provide the report from Mahar's autopsy, he couldn't give it to them because he didn't have it. That's when the lawyers and Judge Evans found out there are 83 unfinished autopsy reports, from 1996 through 2002. All of them are listed as homicides.
"I don't know how this could have happened," Macejko said. "We can't have this sort of civil dispute interfering with criminal prosecutions."
His job here
As forensic pathologist, Dr. Giles performed nearly all the county's autopsies while he was here, and was paid a salary of $110,000 a year. In the cases at hand, Dr. Kennedy said the autopsies have been done, but Dr. Giles has not yet reduced his findings to a final written report.
Dr. Kennedy acknowledged that he should have caught the problem long ago, but he said he didn't become aware of it until just before Dr. Giles left.
"It's obviously my fault. This is something that got past me and it shouldn't have," Dr. Kennedy said. "There is no way those should go more than six months without being done."
Macejko said Dr. Giles is owed $9,099.53 for unused vacation pay he accrued while working for the county. Dr. Kennedy had refused to order payment until the outstanding reports are completed.
"He felt like that was the only leverage he had," Macejko said.
Promised Mahar's report
He said when Dr. Giles learned that the prosecutor's office could face sanction by Judge Evans for failure to provide the autopsy information to Lynch's attorneys, he pledged to make completion of Mahar's report a top priority.
"He said he will do them, and I expect he'll live up to his word," Prosecutor Paul Gains said Tuesday.
Judge Evans gave prosecutors until March 3 to get the report from Dr. Giles and provide it to defense attorneys John B. Juhasz and Damian Billak.
Macejko said Dr. Giles has promised to finish rest of the outstanding reports within six to eight months.
Dr. Kennedy said that all the affected autopsy records are here in the county and that Dr. Giles has copies of the ones he needs.
Dr. Kennedy said he's making it a point to ensure that final reports are submitted on time. "This won't happen again," he said.
In his written court order, Judge Evans noted that Dr. Giles has provided autopsy reports in other cases since he left the county.
bjackson@vindy.com