Does Volusia County Medical Examiner's office past problems offer us some insight into their current alleged problems?
Updated June 29,2010
“Beware the fury of a patient man”- Poet, John Dryden
The Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office is a branch of the Volusia County Department of Public Protection, unlike many other medical examiner's offices in Florida which report to a district, rather than to a county government. In short many other ME offices are completely independant of county government, however, Volusia County Medical Examiner's office is part of county government. Could this connection to county government be part of the problem with the ME's office? We leave that for you to decide.
Many might say that the Office of the Medical Examiner should be seperate of any government that has an law enforcement agency attached to it. Having that separation will bring a check and balance into any investigation that involves a death.
However, in the past, the Volusia County Medical Examiner has challenged local law enforcement officers in regards to the final findings in death investigations. In 1998, Volusia County Medical Examiner Ronald Reeves apparently labeled several local hospice deaths as possible homicides. How did the local law enforcement community react? Will, in short, Dr. Reeves was removed from office and given a very nice severance package. Here are some local media articles about this situation.
At least Dr. Reeves got a nice severance package (for whatever reasons) - some local MEs just get the boot when they challenge the "status quo" on questionable deaths in which the local law enforcement agency might have liability.