Burnet County seeks refund from Travis for body ID error

Official complaint also being considered against medical examiner's office.

By Marty Toohey
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, August 22, 2005

Burnet County may file an official complaint against the Travis County medical examiner's office for misidentifying the charred remains of an 81-year-old woman as a 23-year-old Leander man.

David Kithil, the Burnet County judge, said Friday that he has already asked Travis County to refund the $1,800 cost of the autopsy. Burnet County commissioners will discuss the situation today at their weekly meeting.

Both Kithil and Burnet County Commissioner Bill Neve said they should file a complaint with the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners.

"It was an improper and incomplete autopsy," Kithil said. "I don't even know if they really even looked at the body."

The concerns came after a Travis County deputy medical examiner declared that a body found June 18, 2004, in a flaming Chevrolet in rural Burnet County was that of Clayton Wayne Daniels, then 23.

Peggy Simon, a Burnet County justice of the peace, said that county officials had doubtsabout the identity of the body because so much of it had been destroyed but that they had little reason at the time to question the autopsy. The evidence indicated that the body was Daniels', she said.

Travis County Medical Examiner Roberto Bayardo, who could not be reached for comment, previously has said his office was led to believe that the body was Daniels' before it was examined.

"The authorities were so positive as to whom these remains belonged," Bayardo said earlier this year.

But DNA evidence that came back months later showed that the body was not Daniels'.

The body is believed to be that of Charlotte Davis, who died in 2003. Her grave was found empty.

Daniels was sentenced in June to 20 years in prison after authorities discovered that he and his wife plotted to use Davis' body to fake his death. His wife, Molly Daniels, was sentenced in May to 20 years after she pleaded guilty to charges related to the scheme.

Dr. Vladimir Parungao, who performed the autopsy, listed among his findings the remains of a penis. He is no longer with the medical examiner's office.

Parungao told the Houston Chronicle that his misidentification of the penis was "a mistake I'll always remember."

But he told the Chronicle that he could not do much in an autopsy of a body that was only 12 pounds and 26 inches long.

The autopsy was one of many that Burnet County has paid the Travis County medical examiner's office to perform, Neve said. He said he and his fellow commissioners must determine if they want to continue using the office for autopsies.

"For our own peace of mind," Neve said, "I think we need to ask some questions and let our displeasure be known about the situation."

Kithil said that he talked with Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe on Friday and that Biscoe sounded sympathetic. He said he will write to Biscoe today asking for a refund.

Biscoe said Sunday that he will talk to the medical examiner about the case and possibly put the matter before the court.

"What we were given wasn't much of a cadaver," he said. "I don't know what steps we took and what the reasonable value would be of that work. But if we didn't earn the money, we shouldn't keep it."

"I'm going to try to get to the bottom of it."

For all of those DA's offices that utilize the Travis Co ME's office, like ours, I suspect this is not the last time we will hear about this.

Not that it's any excuse for seeing an invisible penis, but like Judge Biscoe said in the article, it wasn't much of a cadaver. No head, no limbs (except detatched feet, and they kind of looked like gnarled old lady feet!) -- just part of a blackened torso and spinal column burned to a crisp. But I certainly didn't see a penis on the autopsy photos. Granted, the cops told the ME's office "we think this is Clay Daniels", but there could have been a different way of wording the autopsy report until the DNA results were in. Tune in to next month's The Texas Prosecutor for the full story of this bizarro case.

I'll fill in for A.P. since he has been so busy investigating whatever crimes occur in the prison in Hogwaller.

Jane, will the title of the article be..."The case of the Invisible P***s"? Just curious.(banjo music fades)

Sorry, I didn't think of that title! I kind of wanted to downplay the ME's mistakes in the trial!

quote:

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Originally posted by jane starnes:
I kind of wanted to downplay the ME's mistakes in the trial!

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Haven't we all been there?

Hey Greg has Forrest told you the story about Craig Washington's encounter with Dr. B in Bastrop. He does a great impression of the good doc under fire !

In all fairness, it wasn't Dr. B. who saw the invisible penis, it was the now-retired Dr. P.