Behind the Deal
Although the Marion County Coroner and other local government officials have agreed to work out a deal to keep the office functioning, there was apparently a lot more going on behind the scenes.
According to sources close to the coroner, Ackles ordered staff to remove charts from the files of Dr. Stephen Radentz’s offices at the Forensic Pathology Associates of Indiana. Sources say 14 boxes were removed Tuesday night from the FPA offices. Three of the boxes contained information regarding pending cases. In addition, sources also say autopsy equipment had been taken and not all of it returned. The removal of the equipment sources say, resulted in a four hour delay in performing autopsies.
Ackles did have a meeting today with Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi. During that meeting Brizzi asked Ackles whether he was prepared in the event Dr. Joye Carter’s license was not approved. Ackles told Brizzi he had a plan “B” and “C.” When asked about the plan, Ackles simply responded, “I’m the coroner.”
You will also be pleased to know that over the weekend several bodies were removed from the coroner’s office without proper paperwork being signed.
Now you know the story behind the story behind the deal.
December 5th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612030412
Read the comments at the end of the article. I just can’t believe it. He’s stuck in the old days of being a fighter and the civil rights movement. Sweet Jesus.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:01 am
Does someone’s loved one have to disappear for anyone to care? Get him to resign!
December 6th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Abdul – thank you for your work on this story and please keep on it here and on the radio. It is appreciated by many who have been affected by this office’s repeated malfeasance.
December 6th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
There is a sobering read on Advance Indiana regarding this issue too.
December 6th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
The media withheld items from the story yesterday morning that were vital to understanding the gravity of the situation. Look at it like this: You go to the doctor because you’re sick. In the course of your office visit, you have labs drawn and sent off for analysis. He tells you to take it easy at home for a day or two and he’ll call you when the labs are in with the results. You go home, get into bed (still sick), and wait for his call. The doctor sees 10 other patients that day, and draws labs on all of them to rule out strep and other dieases. Everyone is told to wait for a day or two for the results. Everyone goes home and sits by the phone, sick but patient.
Now imagine your doctor is forced to see 10 patients a day for the next three weeks. He is not allowed to check back to see if your labs have come back. Even if they are waiting on the fax, he cannot take the time to call you with the results, because he has to continue to see 10 patients a day even though his work with you is unfinished. Hundreds of patients are waiting for their lab results, thinking, “I’m sure the doctor will call me any minute…” But he doesn’t. He isn’t allowed to. Practice Management has ordered him to continue. He asks several times for a few days to call all these patients back with their results. “They’re waiting,” he says. Some of those lab results confirm happy news, like pregnancy. Others, sad news, like diabetes or Multiple Sclerosis. Life-changing news is on those faxes. But they sit idle, untouched. Imagine almost 200 patients waiting by the phone in this manner. Imagine 200 people hanging by a moment with news they have to know, but cannot have access to. Now put it in the context of the Coroner’s Office. That’s Pathology there–they’ve been told to cut and cut and cut, and forget about the cases with results pending. 170 families are waiting for answers. Dozens of those are criminal cases that will not go to trial. Someone kills your 6 year old child and will not serve any time for it because Kenneth Ackles and the city of Indianapolis thinks it is more urgent to continue on with autopsy in present day. It’s like 170 people just suddenly don’t matter anymore, according to the city of Indianapolis and Kenneth Ackles.
No physician’s practice would ever be forced to accept this intrusion. But it’s okay for Indianapolis to insist that FPAI does. It is okay for Kenneth Ackles to tell Dr. Radentz (Dr. Radentz’ education: 4 years undergrad, 4 years medical school, 5 years Pathology residency, 1 year Forensic Fellowship, Boarded an Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and Forensic Pathology, program director for IU fellowship, and teacher to 125 of the 400 Forensic Pathologists in the country) how to practice medicine (Dr. Ackles: Chiropractors go to school for 3 years and has never gone to medical school). It would never happen anywhere else. But it happened here, in our government. And no one cares. Guess what? Those families care. If your sister had been shot in the head last month and you were waiting for the final word, you would care. But all the city cares about is covering up the fact that Ackles was caught in a lie. “There will be no interruption in services” and all that BS. His entire office stopped running yesterday, and he had no comment yet again.
Brizzi and crew ask Ackles to elaborate on Plan B or C. Ackles says he’s looking at some people. No, he isn’t. Roland Kohr in Terre Haute said in no uncertain terms in October that he would not clean up after Marion County’s mess. You might want to ask him why he has changed his mind. Perhaps no one has even spoken to him. Ackles offered positions to Pathologists in Muncie, Martinsville, Lake County…they all said no. He has no one in the wings. The city made Radentz bail him out again today. Radentz has been asked to practice Medicine in a way that is unheard of in any specialty.
Let’s just say Carter gets her license. She steps in and is faced with a cooler filled with bodies this weekend. She is the only path on staff. Autopsies take 3 hours. With 3 tables going, there has been as many as 9 autopsies going at the same time that day. Joye will be alone. She’ll never make it. And once they get past that part, there the small issue of the pending cases that Radentz couldn’t close in time. As of today = 170. Avg number of new cases per day = 3. Per week = 21. That’s almost 70 new cases before 12/19. Add the 170 to that. It’s mind-blowing. They’ll never make it. Brizzi’s insistence of filing charges within 72 hours will be about all he gets done on those cases. The reports will never be looked at again.
Brizzi knows it. The Mayor knows it. The Coroner knows it. Legal knows it. But who cares–they’re just dead people. Your family doesn’t matter. Indy leadership says: get over it.
December 6th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Ask Carl Southern’s family how shockingly uncomfortable the last few months have been for them. Ask them how it felt to find out that their husband and father was cremated without their knowledge. The Coroner’s Office never offered them an explanation. Ask IPD how easy it has been to try to investigate a homicide without a body or evidence (other than a tape of Southern being led from an apartment building at gunpoint, but who’s paying attention to that anyway). If you die in Marion County after Friday, a criminal who has been out of work for four years will be conducting your autopsy. Your file, including all of your health information for your entire life, along with all of your family’s health information, will be accessed by people like the janitor. who has a key to the restricted Pathology area and locked filing cabinets. People who are not Forensic Investigators on your case will rifle through your autopsy records, copying what they would like to keep for themselves. Here is a conservative list of items contained in your case file: your health history, including any diseases that you would prefer your coworkers did not know about; your lifestyle, your social security number and address, your wallet contents including credit card numbers and cash, your hospital records, police reports, arrest records, information on your family, your education, your residence, etc etc etc. Carl Brizzi might want to check into how many case files are missing from those cabinets already. Your body will lie in the cooler for days or weeks, because Joye Carter (if she gets licensed) will not have any way to get her head above water to get to all those bodies.
Thank You Bart Peterson! Thank You Carl Brizzi! Thank You Julia Carson! Thank You Mitch Daniels! Thank You Kenneth Ackles! Thank You Alfarena Ballew! Thank You City Legal! We really feel much safer now.
December 6th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
When I hear about cover-ups and lies coming from a coronors office I can’t help but wonder who was murdered and who is getting away with the crime.
I say that the citizens rally together and hire an independent investigation firm. Any takers?
December 8th, 2006 at 5:25 am
License to Get the Job Done!!!
Dr. Carter is a qualified forensic pathologist. More credentials than some of the previous coroners in Marion County. Mistakes were made by some of them too. I never saw a public lynching for them to resign.
Some of you people have made mistakes in your professions. Does that make you unqualified to correct your mistakes and keep your jobs?
She is a 1975 Shortridge High School Graduate from Indianapolis,
Board certified in anatomical, clinical, and forensic pathology. Background in Military as United States Air Force physician. Former Chief Medical Examiner of Washington, DC. Former Chief Medical Examiner of Harris County, Texas; College: Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio; Medical School: Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC; Internship: Internal Medicine, Booth Memorial Hospital, Queens, NY; Residency: Clinical and Anatomical Pathology, Howard University Hospital Fellowship: Forensic Pathology, Dade County, FL; Military Experience: United States Air Force , Major, retired , Former Deputy Chief Medical Examiner for the Armed Forces Medical Examiner Dept.; Experience: Over twenty years as forensic pathologist , Over five thousand post mortem examinations performed Testimony given in over five hundred criminal cases
The state licensing board approved her license to practice in Indiana.
Evidently, her credentials were in tact to practice her trade in the coroner’s office.
The media should do a better job reporting on all of the individuals who work and earn their living in public service. We need to scrutinize the credentials of more of our public officials more closely, as we have in this case regardless of their politics.
Any mistakes made in the past can be corrected. An administrator is held accountable for the actions of their employees, just like the president, governor, mayor, prosecutor, etc. Her licenses were never pulled in the past by the other states. No criminal actions on her part. Give her a chance. Think about it!