Celebrity coroner on trial today

[flashl]

Source: Philly Inquirer

Pittsburgh pathologist Cyril Wecht gained international fame over the last four decades investigating the deaths of famous people, testifying in the biggest unsolved murder cases, and delivering lively expert commentary for cable news networks.

Today the 76-year-old former Allegheny County coroner will sit in the defendant's seat, facing federal fraud charges for allegedly using county funds and staff to benefit his private forensic pathology practice.

The case itself pales next to others in which Wecht has played a role - and from which he made millions - in his private work, among them the death of Anna Nicole Smith's son, Daniel, and the killing of Jon Benet Ramsey.

Though there are several scintillating charges against him alleging corpse trading with a local college and the improper storage of human brain tissues, most of the charges brought against Wecht by a grand jury in January 2006 involve more mundane issues: the improper use of fax machines, postage and a county car.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080128_Celebrity_coroner_on_trial_today.html

[Freedomofspeech]

1. My husband was called for jury duty for this trial...

He had to fill out a 24 page questionnaire and answer things like: what kind of bumper stickers do you have on your car, are you a member of Moveon.org, etc. Because of his answers, the judge questioned him for 45 minutes. My husband told him he didn't believe in the justice system anymore because of Alberto Gonzales, and he also told him that if they were going after Cyril Wecht, they should also be going after Congressman Tim Murphy (R), who used his staff to campaign for him. The federal judge in this case was appointed by * and of course Wecht is a Democrat. Not defending Wecht here, but many people in the area believe that they went after him because he is a strong Democrat in the area.

[flashl]

2. Newspaper articles across the country points to an extraordinary array of "D" officials

under charges, which creates a perception of corruption eruption among Ds.

[WritersBlock]

3. Lemme guess...

... your hubby didn't make the jury, did he? ;)

Good for him for speaking his mind, though.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht Accused of Profiting From Office: Another political prosecution?

Source: New York Times

By SEAN D. HAMILL
Published: January 28, 2008

PITTSBURGH — By his own count, Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, one of the nation’s foremost forensic pathologists, has testified in more than 1,000 civil and criminal trials in his 46-year career, and opined on thousands more on television, on radio and in print.

But now, for the second time in his life, Dr. Wecht is the accused.

In a case Congressional Democrats say is a politically motivated prosecution by a Republican administration, Dr. Wecht, a Democrat, is in federal court here facing 41 criminal counts. Opening statements are scheduled to begin Monday.

Those counts include mail fraud, wire fraud and theft of honest services. The most serious charges could send him to prison for up to 20 years per count....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/us/28wecht.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=login

[swoop]

5. Sounds like they're making an awful lot out of this.

And so what if he wanted the room to do his own autopsies in--what else was the space going to be used for?

[Robbien]

6. Is the Times basically saying there is so much fraud and corruption

and everyone is doing it

that picking this one man out of the whole corrupt bunch is political?

[DeepModem Mom]

7. The article is faulty, I think, in that it doesn't go into the reasons Democrats think...

this prosecution is political. Wecht, from what I've read previously, is a prominent Democrat. Maybe someone with more knowledge, maybe a Pennsylvanian, will add more info.

[MinM]

11. U.S. Attorney-Gate | Mary Beth Buchanan

U.S. Attorney-Gate

Mary Beth Buchanan

On September 5, 2001, a woman named Mary Beth Buchanan became the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Six days later United Flight 93 crashed in a field in her Justice Department jurisdiction, and not too far from the small Pennsylvania town she grew up in.

Faced with an immediate connection to the horrors of terrorism and its horrifying impact on the community she grew up in, Buchanan hit the ground running as new U.S. Attorney. She went right out and spent two years and $12 million in taxpayer funds on "Operation Pipe Dreams" rounding up 55 people who sell bongs on the internet (Pennsylvania is one of the two states where such products are illegal to sell).

In the midst of this global war on terror, it's only fitting Tommy Chong would be sentenced on the two year anniversary that day that will live in infamy. We all feel safer knowing he was behind bars for selling a harmless product that's legal to sell almost anywhere.
http://www.theagitator.com/2006/06/18/

from Tommy Chong

to Cyril Wecht

Mary Beth Buchanan has pursued the partisan priorities of the Bush administration

Ms. Buchanan has spent considerable official time and taxpayer money to advance the administration's agenda and her own ambitions. She has employed a full-time press agent -- a novelty to her office -- and misused senior staff to ghost-write her speeches and articles. While she is prosecuting Dr. Cyril Wecht, a Democrat and devoted public official, for allegedly abusing his office for private gain, she is employing taxpayer dollars to further her own career..
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/013931.php

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Thanks for adding this info, MinM. nt

[MinM]

21. The Dubya AG's are going out swinging

Alabama USA targets another Dem...
http://www.atlargely.com/2008/01/alabama-usa-tar.html

[yardwork]

16. $12 million to arrest 55 people selling bongs?

That's an example of Republican fiscal responsibility, that is.

[AngryAmish]

8. This is the guy from "Alien Autopsy"

I met the guy years ago and did not like him, so I may be biased. I have no idea if he is a crook.

[VP505]

9. Interesting that the

United States attorney Buchanan would say that considering the firring of US attorney scandal brought out facts that suggest otherwise.

“Despite Mr. Thornburgh’s baseless protestations, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania does not make decisions, including decisions to investigate, based on the political affiliation of any of its subjects, targets or defendants, and it did not do so in Dr. Wecht’s case,” Ms. Buchanan said through her lawyer, Roscoe C. Howard Jr."

[defendandprotect]

10. Wecht is a prominent and long time critic of the JFK coup --

and the Warren Report which the right-wing is still trying to shore up --
They've produced a number of "shows" in the last years trying to do just that ---
one with the commentator who subsequently died of cancer and another one which
played on PBS a week or so ago.

Anyone who knows anything about these issues knows they are lies ---
However, there is always a new generation which is susceptible to r-w propaganda.

It's amazing how basic truth can be ignored by the r-w, because there is NO chance that corporate-media is going to call them out on anything or correct anything they say.

[RamboLiberal]

13. As someone who lives in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh)

Mary Beth Buchanan is doing some grand-standing here. She's another of the Bush toadie attorneys. From what I hear some of the charges are asinine - like making personal copies on the office copier, or using the fax machine.

That being said Wecht is arrogant and flouts the rules IMHO. He was charged years ago with using the county morgue for private autopsies and while he didnt' get convicted criminally he did end up paying $200,000.

He's not that influential anymore IMHO in the Democratic party here - at the most he's the old guard.

And yes he's the leading proponent against the single bullet theory but if anyone thinks that motivated the prosecution you really are a :tinfoil: 'er.

IMHO Mary Beth ought to have just let this one go. It will do no one any good if this old man has to spend time in prison for this stupid waste of taxpayer's money to prosecute him.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. Thanks for your local perspective, Rambo. nt

[happyslug]

17. The good old days of the Wecht -Coon Fights....

Coon was the Sheriff of Allegheny County for about 20 years, while Wecht was the Corner. These two fought over who was to run the Democratic Party in Allegheny county from about 1970 till Coon was run over while drunk in the late 1990s (He survived, but quit being Sheriff right afterward).

Prior to Wecht, the Coroner was Dr Hunt, who then became County Commissioner in the late 1960s and stayed County Commissioner till the mid 1970s. Hunt was a Republican and opposed the Skybus program of the 1960s and 1970s and actually won more votes than either democrat on the three man board of County Commissioner during the early 1970s (and lost out to Hafer in the 1980s when he called her a "Nothing but a Nurse"). Please note in the County Commissioner system in Pennsylvania you get to voe for two of the three members, that way one is always of the minority party, thus while Hunt had more votes then any other candidates, the Democrats came in Second and third, beating out the other Republican running that year).

Anyway, no one ever called Wecht stupid or corrupt, he had such a reputation he took a pay cut to be Coroner. 20 years ago he was brought up on similar charges at the state level, it was ruled he committed no crime, but also ruled that the money he received while coroner for things he did in the Coroner's office for other Counties, should NOT have stayed in his office, but instead be turned over to his Political enemies who where then County Commissioners. What Wecht had done was used to money to improve the Coroner's office, instead of turning the money over the to Commissioners and asking them to authorize spending the money on the Coroner's office. The Court ruled he had to pay back all the money he had spent. Wecht left the Coroner Officer to earn the money to pay it back but when the Coroner's office opened up again he won it again. Yes, he had spent the money on the Coroner's Office, but since it had NOT been authorized by the COmmissioners it was illegal for him to spend the money and had to pay the money back. The only reason he had the money was do to his reputation as a Medical Examiner and he spent the money on improving the office. All this did NOT matter, he had to pay it back out of his own funds (Yes, it was political in nature, as is this trial, but at least the State had something to go on, not the clearly political issue being brought up in this trial).

My point here is Wecht is abrupt, egotistical and hard to work with, but he is also bright and knowledgeable (He avoided the Skybus debacle quite while). No one has ever called him corrupt, for he has many faults but corruption is NOT one of them. Even in this case no one is accusing him of personal gain, he is being accused of the "misuse" of office for acts that no one will consider personnel gain. He did NOT have to steal from the County, he had enough money. In fact if he wanted to make more money all he had to do is QUIT his job.

Wecht is hated by Republicans for the same reason they hated Governor Milton Shapp (Governor of Pennsylvania 1970-1978). They ran ever efficient governments and could NOT be accused of corruption for BOTH LOST MONEY DURING THE TIME PERIOD THEY HELD OFFICE. In the case of Shapp, no one knows how much for Cable boomed while he was governor, but he had sold all of his rights in cable before he even ran for office (Shapp had invented how to convert weak broadcasts into cable usable pictures in the 1950s, in effect made cable possible for people in areas to far from broadcast stations to get reception). Wecht is similar to Shapp, both LOST money while they held office. Both could make more money outside of office but both wanted to help their fellow man and believed the only way to do that was to get elected and use the power of elected office to help people. The GOP can NOT understand that, they are in Politics to make money, the idea of people being in Politics other than for personal gain is beyond their comprehension. Thus Wecht is on trial for Corruption. Most Republican can NOT understand or accept that people will give up lucrative private employment for elected position just to do public good. No GOP candidate would do that, why would a Democrat.

[DeepModem Mom]

19. That is fascinating! At some point, as this story develops, you should post your info...

so that everyone understands the background, and what's going on.

[happyslug]

20. Read about the Property tax Freeze of the 1990s..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3159246&mesg_id=3161061

And how it lead to an on line property tax system.

[RamboLiberal]

15. Here's some of the charges

That Dr. Wecht used his county administrative assistants to run his private business, Cyril H. Wecht & Pathology Associates Inc.

• That he used deputy county coroners as his private go-fers -- using them to drive him and his family to functions, and as couriers;

• That he used one of two county histologists almost exclusively to process slides for his private company;

• That he took at least 16 unclaimed bodies form the county morgue and provided them to Carlow University in exchange for use of the school's anatomy lab;

• That he defrauded his private clients by inflating the prices they paid for his travel.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08028/852823-100.stm

[superconnected]

18. Someone has it out for him. Fax usage and postage... owww!

"In a case Congressional Democrats say is a politically motivated prosecution by a Republican administration, Dr. Wecht, a Democrat, is in federal court here facing 41 criminal counts. Opening statements are scheduled to begin Monday."

[RamboLiberal]

22. Last few days there's been all kinds of testimony about

Wecht using coroner's staff to do all kinds of personal/political errands on and off the clock. Trial is probably going to last about 9 weeks. I still don't think this should be a federal trial but the county should've disciplined him IMHO.

Some details:

Lupinacci testified on Thursday that she was ordered to do political work on county time for Wecht's son, David.

Coroner's deputy Tiffani Hunt also testified she was ordered with Lupinacci to make fundraiser calls for David Wecht for two and a half hours once at an Oxford Center office.

Now a Common Pleas judge, David Wecht had previously been elected county Register of Wills, but Hunt didn't say during which campaign the calls were made.

On another occasion, Hunt said she was told not to wear her uniform to work for a couple of days because she would be driving around the county selling fundraising tickets and collecting money to benefit David Wecht's campaign. It should have been clear that Hunt was a coroner's staffer, however, because she drove around using a coroner's van, Hunt testified.

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/15187716/detail.html

Deputies from the coroners office said corpses were frequently left in public view , because they had to run errands for Wecht before getting to the scene.

Then-coroner's deputy Richard Patrick Lorah testified that errands for Wecht took priority over retrieving the body of a woman whose car plunged backward several stories from a parking garage.

"Yeah, he could care less about the deceased victims in this county," said Lorah. "It's really a crime. It will all come out in court."

Lorah said the so-called "Wecht detail" took priority.

"He said, 'Let her lay,'" Lorah said.

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/15179060/detail.html

People will eat anything, even hot dogs delivered in a van used to transport corpses.

That was at least one fact a prosecutor sought to establish beyond a reasonable doubt Monday during the first day of testimony in the public corruption trial of former Allegheny County Coroner Cyril H. Wecht.

A former Wecht underling testified he once used a coroner's office van while on duty to deliver hot dogs to a political event for Wecht's son, Common Pleas Court Judge David Wecht.

That was perhaps the most unusual -- and least appetizing -- detail to emerge as the 41-count case against one of the nation's most famous forensic pathologists began.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_549731.html