Page 4B/The BattalionAVednesday, August 28,1985
Examiner’s job often tricky
By GIGI SHAMSY
Reporter
In 1981, the unexpected hap
pened at the Bexar County medical
examiner's office.
Dr. Vincent DiMaio, chief medical
examiner for San Antonio and its
surrounding towns, received a tele
phone call from someone who had
questions about the death of a family
member—a death that occurred one
year earlier.
The victim was a 70-year-old man
with a history of heart ailments who
was found dead at his home.
Shortly after the time of death,
the medical examiner who pre-
ceeded DiMaio ran a few laboratory
tests and labeled the case a natural
death — no questions asked.
One year later, DiMaio faced a
critical question as to the cause of the
victim’s death.
He immediately ordered an exhu
mation of the body and ran lab tests
to determine the amount of carbon
monoxide in the blood.
“I found a 70 percent carbon
monoxide level in the victim’s
blood,” DiMaio said. “This indicated
a fatal level of barbiturate in the
blood. I signed out the cause of
death as ‘aqute barbiturate overdo
se’.”
Because of the nationwide short
age of qualified pathologists who in
vestigate deaths, horror stories are
common about autopsies that should
have been conducted or autopsies
that were misconducted.
A successful autopsy involves col
laboration between the coroner or
justice of the peace (neither requir
ing a medical degree), the medical
examiner (a licensed pathologist spe
cially trained in forensic pathology)
and law enforcement officials.
The autopsy must be conducted
and reported in an organized man
ner to find the cause of death and to
avoid future legal stipulations, says
Dr. Charles Petty, Dallas County’s
Chief Medical Examiner.
At the Institute of Forensic Sci
ences in Dallas, Petty has a library of
films and videos which he uses to
train personnel who investigate
deaths or assist in autopsies.
Petty summed up the major ac
complishments of a thorough au
topsy:
• a complete investigation of the
body.
• a complete record of finger
prints and photographs for proper
identification of the body.
• a thorough examination of the
body’s external surfaces, such as
clothing.
• a record of information for the
court of law'.
• a diagram drawn of the body’s
components and its wounds.
• a tape-recorded analysis of the
pathologist’s observations and pro
cedures.
In the tape recording, Petty said,
the medical examiner integrates his
findings with the findings of the sci
entist who examines the body.
“Ultimately, the autopsy provides
insight on how and why the death
took place as well as giving adequate
details to investigating law enforce
ment officials and to the courts of
law.”
Petty said that, because of case
overload common to medical exam
iner systems, the employees at the
Institute of Forensic Sciences can
only afford to conduct autopsies if
extenuating circumstances arise.
Last year, Petty and his staff ac
cepted 4,000 cases for autopsy out of
8,500 reported deaths in Dallas
County.
Smaller counties, like Brazos
County, have fewer deaths and a
smaller number of homicides, sui
cides and “unnatural” deaths.
Dr. J.C. Lee is the pathologist re
sponsible for autopsies in Brazos
County.
He, too, says he feels that a good
working relationship between the
coroner and the investigating officer
is essential to a death investigation.
“My first case in Brazos County
involved the death of an A&M pro
fessor who was supposedly shot by
an A&M student,” Lee said. “I
quickly learned how important it was
to work as a team with the police and
detectives. I also learned that I
would be called on to testify about
my findings (from the autopsy) in
court.”
If Dr. Lee is not at St. Joseph Hos
pital conducting an autopsy or run
ning a lab analysis, you can most
likely find him working at his private
pathological practice in Bryan.
Lee said that much to his dismay,
he has appeared in court to present
autopsy findings and to testify as an
“expert witness.”
“The question always comes up in
court ‘Are you a forensic patholog
ist?’ and I explain about tbe exper
tise I have gained after doing autop
sies, working in the investigation and
presenting it to the court,” Lee said.
Lee says that testifying in court as
an “expert witness” is the least favor
able aspect of his job.
Lt. Irvin Todd of the College Sta
tion Police Department says the Bra
zos County law enforcement officials
have a strong working relationship
with Dr. Lee and with the county jus
tices of the peace.
“We treat every scene involving a
dead body as if it were a homicide,”
Todd said.
Texas fireman cooks nea
anything for his colleagues
PS
Associated Press
“Roughly, College Station has
about one homicide per year,” Todd
said. “We investigate more than just
homicides. We investigate all assaults
and threats, too, by going out and to
tally processing every crime scene
with photographs and investigating
all evidence and charting all infor
mation.
So justices of the peace and medi
cal examiners alike sometimes find
themselves tangled in a web of ethi
cal questions concerning proper
death investigations and presenta
tion in court.
Being the “expert” is just part of
the job for most coroners and medi
cal examiners.
Dr. Flvin Smith, a Texas A&M
Medical School pathology professor
and former Galveston County medi
cal examines, admits that mistakes in
death investigations are made.
“I’ve seen situations where, after
the medical examiner presented the
findings of his investigation in
court,” Smith said, “the jury doubts
that someone has died.
“The autopsies get done — some
times less than well. But they get do
ne.”
BEAUMONT — Although the
menu may initially alarm a cau
tious eater, members of the Beau
mont Fire Department say they
never go away hungry when Rex
Hoffpauir puts on his starched
chef s hat.
Whatever members of the de
partment bring in, Hoffpauir
cooks. The fare was barbecued
raccoon one month. Another
time, it was fried alligator tail.
Once, Hoffpauir fixed armadillo,
baked in onions.
On other occasions, the spe
cialty has been baked dove, ve : -
son gumbo, catfish or just
beans.
Although the menu may not al
ways sound appetizing, Fire Chief
Pete Shelton and department
spokesman Tommy May said
they have never tasted any of
Hoffpauir’s specialties they didn’t
like.
“1 use a dash of this and some
of this,” Hoffpauir says. “I never
measure anything.”
At 47, he has been cooking for
fun since he was about 10. A fire
lighter of 17 years, he now dou
bles as the department cook and
supply officer. His gumbo won
first place in the 1981 Interna
tional Gumbo Cookoff in
Orange, but he said he doesn’t
have the time to enter contests
anymore.
Two years ago, Hoffpauir
made his famous gumbo for
1,000 statewide fire department
representatives at Riverfront
Park.
Hoffpauir said he uses no reci
pes for what he affectionately
calls his “half Cajun, half Texan"
dishes. The fire department cook
says he uses seasonings at random
and by experimenting.
“The basics are there,” he told
the Beaumont Enterprise!
nal. “1 just keep changing!
making variations of tne»
theme each time 1 cook.”
I loff pauir said he has nose
ingredients.
Patience is the keytobeirj
good chef, he advised,!
ing talent may run inthefai
Hoffpauir’s firefighting faj
whipped up gumbo and s
87 years in Beaumont.
Hoffpauir is sometimes i
sisted by 84-year department
ei an I larold Kelps, (i2. Then
hover over huge pots, slim
green-colored powaers and:
seasonings into the steamings;
Hoffpauir said he dm
usually eat what he cooks,i
that’s not because he doesnil
what he prepares.
"By the time 1 get through
ing everything while fmtook
I’m just not hungry anymore.j
said.
ju
By M
Damage requests high
in worker’s accidental
shooting death on job
Associated Press
RIO GRANDE CITY — A Starr
County jury has recommended that
almost 3j>8 million in damages be
given to the family of an oilfield
worker fatally shot in the face by a
co-worker.
The seven-man, five-woman jury
found gross negligence Thursday on
the part of Heldt Brothers Trucking
of Alice, an oilfield service company,
and one of its former employees,
Moses Medrano, 37, of Port Isabel.
Medrano shot and killed Ruben
Ruiz, 20, while playing w ith a gun at
an oil rig at a west Starr County-
ranch on May 21,1980, police said.
Medrano had testified that his su
pervisor, Rene Alvarado, saw him
three times with the gun on the day
of the accident, but only once told
him to put it down.
Medrano was playing Russian
roulette with the .22 magnum re
volver and had pointed the suppos
edly broken gun at himselfi
others, he testified.
Medrano testified he puttki
rel of the gun in his moult I
pulled the trigger. He then
it at Ruiz and “after so many
clicked it and it went off," lie';
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