Dr. Siebert Accepts Sanctions
January 3, 2007
By Deanna Lambert
BAY COUNTY, Fla.; Dr. Charles
Siebert says he's hoping to speed up the investigation process and
save money.
The investigation into Siebert's
work started back in May of last year following the controversial
ruling in the death of a teenager from the Bay County Boot Camp.
In November of 2004, Siebert
approved a report that indicated a Calhoun County woman who died
during a tornado, had male organs.
Siebert said it was simply a
typographical error made when transferring written records with
limited light shortly after the storm. "It's not like I saw testes
on this person that's ridiculous. It was just transcription error
where it was transposed from prior report that I missed
proofreading."
However, missed proofreading was
just one mistake that prompted the Florida Medical Commission to
recommend disciplinary action against Siebert.
Last May, Attorney General Charlie
Crist sent a letter requesting a panel review past autopsies
following Siebert's controversial conclusion of the death of a
teenager who died hours after entering the boot camp.
In February of 2005, Siebert
announced "the cause of death of Martin Lee Anderson is
complications of sickle cell trait." A second autopsy found Anderson
died from being suffocated by boot camp guards.
Those guards and a nurse have since
been charged with aggravated manslaughter.
Dr. Siebert was cleared of any
wrongdoing in the case.
Excluding Anderson's autopsy, a
panel examined nearly 700 of Siebert's reports and found 42 errors,
mostly clerical like marking the wrong race or failing to note scars
on a man's body.
Siebert explained, "there are
typographically errors and clerical mistakes, but were not anything
that was a major thing as far as change of cause of death."
In August, the panel's recommended
discipline included probation and a supervisor to oversee his work.
Siebert, however disputes the
findings and appealed.
At first he requested a hearing
before an administrative judge, which could take months to conclude
and time is not on Siebert's side who's contract is up in June.
Last month, Siebert filed a revised
election of rights, accepting the sanctions outlined, which now
eliminate the words discipline and probation but allow Siebert to
still dispute the allegations.
A suggestion from lawyers to
hopefully avoid a hearing.
Siebert says, "the reason why I
chose for it to go to a hearing was the only way I could dispute the
facts was to go to a formal hearing, now they say well if we redo
election of rights, you can still dispute the facts and if you
propose a plan of action that would be satisfactory to the
commission, maybe we could work it out that way."
That plan of action is one that
Siebert is already implementing. "Basically it's a quality assurance
program where I had a board certified forensic pathologist come in
and observe my autopsy technique and then what I do is submit
autopsy reports to her for correction and just making sure there are
no major mistakes before they get released."
Siebert is hoping he will not be
released from his duties as Chief Medical Examiner come June, when
now Governor Charlie Crist who first launched the investigation as
attorney general will ultimately decide to reappoint him or not.
In order to keep his job,
performance surveys will also be sent to agencies Siebert works
with.
Those will be submitted to the
medical examiner's commission, along with their recommendation.
As for the status of Siebert's
appeal, the commission will meet later this month to decide whether
to formally approve his revised plan of action.
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