Carl Brizzi for Prosecutor

Brizzi uses search warrant instead of subpoenas in theft probe

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi took the more dramatic route Tuesday in getting a search warrant rather than issuing a subpoena to seize records from the coroner's office.

Brizzi said he and his investigators collected files on seven death investigations as part of a probe into alleged thefts and potential obstruction of justice charges related to improper record-keeping and mishandling of bodies at the coroner's office.

Brizzi confirmed that the cases included more than $3,000 stolen from one corpse and the cremation of another -- who may have been a homicide victim -- without notifying the police or family.

He would not comment on whether he was seizing records about the accidental drug overdose deaths of three premature infants at Methodist Hospital earlier this month.

But Coroner Kenneth Ackles, in a written statement issued later in the day, said his office had been cooperating with requests for information about those deaths. Six babies in the hospital's neonatal unit were accidentally given an adult dosage of the anti-clotting drug heparin after a pharmacy technician put the wrong vials in a cabinet.

Ackles' statement said the coroner's office reviewed the bodies and records and determined that the three deaths were accidental. No autopsies were ordered. Ackles said the tragedy should not become a political issue.

Brizzi said his records seizure does not necessarily mean any charges will be brought against Ackles or others in the office. But he said concern over theft and mishandling of records prompted him to use a search warrant instead of a subpoena.

He confirmed that his office was interested in the cases of Charles R. Wright, Indianapolis, and Carl Southern, whose body was cremated this year without notifying police that the coroner's office could not locate his relatives. Southern's family found out about the Indianapolis man's death when it received a letter from the Social Security Administration that his benefits were terminated.

"These are serious allegations about mishandling of bodies and documents," Brizzi said. "This body could have been the city's 117th homicide (this year). We don't know, because we never got a chance to do an autopsy."

Brizzi said his investigation has been in the works for about five weeks. Details about the investigation were first reported earlier this month after it was learned that money stolen from Wright's body in October led a police detective to question the security of evidence and property at the coroner's office.

In a report written in February, a police detective said he found a lack of computer security that would allow employees to alter property receipts without detection. Ackles said he has made a number of changes to better secure the office and evidence that it handles in suspicious deaths.

Ackles said he was surprised by the search Tuesday. He complained that the news media seemed to know about the raid before he did. He also noted that Brizzi wore makeup for the TV cameras. He implied that the raid was an election-year publicity stunt by the prosecutor, who is locked in an increasingly competitive bid to win re-election.

Brizzi said he doesn't often attend the execution of search warrants but did so this time so he could explain to Ackles what investigators were doing. He said he last attended the execution of a search warrant for Hoosier Lottery records during the investigation of a scratch-off game scandal in 2004.

Half a dozen grand-jury investigators walked with Brizzi into the coroner's office southwest of Downtown just before 11 a.m. Tuesday. They carried out several boxes full of files and computer drives within a few hours.

Ackles, a private-practice chiropractor, was not in the office at 521 W. McCarty St. Informed of the raid by his chief deputy, he chose not to come to the office. He said he had patients in his office and couldn't leave them unattended.

His statement said his office is cooperating fully with the prosecutor's office, though it also expressed some frustration.

"This process we felt was unnecessary, especially in light of our office turning over file materials whenever requested by members of law enforcement agencies," the statement said.

The prosecutor's investigation could aid efforts to reform the coroner's system statewide. That system has been under scrutiny since the Grant County coroner mixed up the identities of two Taylor University students involved in an auto accident in the spring.

In Indiana, coroners are elected, and the job is a part-time position that requires no medical training.

Sen. Patricia L. Miller, R-Indianapolis, has said she will try to pass legislation in 2007 to increase the training requirements for coroners and their employees.
Deanna Allen Knox said she was glad the prosecutor had acted. The Johnson County woman previously had complained that the coroner's office failed to notify her family for several weeks after the death earlier this year of her niece, Jessica Dale.

"I said 'hallelujah' when I heard," Knox said Tuesday. "Let's get some justice for these people."

Call Star reporter Brendan O'Shaughnessy at (317) 444-2751.