En este video titulado "Post Mortem: Una Mirada Profunda a los Secretos de la Muerte", exploraremos los secretos de la muerte y su impacto en nuestra vida. Profundizaremos en el significado de la muerte y los rituales funerarios que han sido parte de diversas culturas. Acompáñanos mientras discutimos la comprensión de la muerte y cómo enfrentarla, desmitificando los mitos sobre la muerte y analizando la filosofía que la rodea. Este contenido está diseñado para brindarte una perspectiva educacional y reflexiva, permitiéndote entender mejor la vida después de la muerte y su significado en nuestro viaje humano.
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TVTranscript
00:00We all die, only in the United States 2.5 million people die a year.
00:25Sometimes the cause of death is not a surprise.
00:29In others, it comes suddenly.
00:32By accident.
00:34Heart attack.
00:36Suicide.
00:44There are medical specialists whose job is to find out how and why a person dies.
00:50They are known as forensic pathologists or forensic doctors.
00:54They are the ones who do the autopsy or necropsy.
00:57Your last medical exam.
01:05Dr. Marcela Fierro is one of the leading forensic doctors in the United States.
01:11When I was treating live patients, I spoke with them.
01:14When I treat dead patients, I also speak with them.
01:17But they don't answer.
01:19They talk back to me with physical evidence and their pathology.
01:24I ask them, tell me your story.
01:27And you tell me.
01:29I don't think of it as cutting them up.
01:31I think of it as examining their tissues.
01:35Examining their injuries.
01:37I do an autopsy and they tell me their story.
01:40Forensic doctors like Fierro determine the cause of death.
01:45Was it a natural death?
01:47An accident?
01:48A homicide?
01:49Or a suicide?
01:51You don't need to be a medical genius to know if someone was hit in the head or shot.
01:57But it does take a special expertise to tell the distance.
02:01Is his arm long enough to do it?
02:03Is there anything in his body that could cause depression?
02:06Does he have any defensive marks?
02:09It's a complex subject.
02:11You don't learn it in a week.
02:13You don't need to be trained to know what to look for and what to ask for.
02:18Because if a death is not considered suspicious and is released as a natural,
02:23the victim will be buried or cremated,
02:25regardless of the family's wishes,
02:27and will never rise again.
02:30The world's number one self-punisher.
02:34Is that you?
02:44Is that me?
02:46I'm blonde with blue eyes and I weigh 55 pounds.
02:50I refuse to be honored.
02:54Do you see what I'm seeing, Sid?
02:56Uh, yeah.
03:04A lot of people who see CSI on TV think that's how it really is.
03:14But reality is excellent to absolutely lousy.
03:23I mean, when you look at a case like Forense,
03:26you think, oh, there's no scientific basis for this decision.
03:32It's a complete garbage.
03:35And then you have the family,
03:36they read the report presented in a good paper and with an official seal,
03:40and they think, I guess they know what they're doing.
03:43And you're saying that they're producing garbage every day.
03:46I'm saying in this country,
03:48many medical agencies and law enforcement agencies produce garbage, yes.
03:56Hello?
03:57Can I help you?
03:58I think my wife has committed suicide.
04:01Where is she?
04:02She's lying on the floor.
04:05She's dead.
04:07In the Sonoma County, north of San Francisco,
04:09someone calls 911.
04:11I can't believe it.
04:13A husband reports that his wife has committed suicide.
04:16Holy God.
04:23Chris Reynolds, a private investigator,
04:25works in that case hired by the husband's lawyer.
04:28Our client found his wife dead,
04:31outside, facing down, in a bucket of water.
04:36He rolled her over, started CPR, and tried to resuscitate her.
04:41Normally, when a dead wife appears,
04:43the husband is the first suspect.
04:46And this case happened.
04:49The county sheriff asked for an autopsy
04:51to determine whether or not it was a homicide.
04:56In the Sonoma County,
04:57the autopsy is performed by the private company,
04:59the Forensic Medical Group.
05:03Good morning.
05:04What do you have today?
05:05Okay, go ahead.
05:07The Forensic designated to perform the autopsy was this man,
05:10Dr. Thomas Gill.
05:13And this case was all going to be addressed
05:16on what this Forensic defined as the cause of death.
05:22What did he find?
05:23He characterized it as a case of manual asphyxiation.
05:26And in the world of defense, when you read something like that,
05:29you think, well, it's over.
05:32Because if a forensic doctor makes a statement like that,
05:35those are big words.
05:37We had to make sure that guy knew what he was talking about.
05:42Reynolds began to investigate the past of Dr. Gill.
05:46He followed the lead from Oregon,
05:47where Dr. Gill lost his job as a university professor,
05:51to Indianapolis,
05:52where he got his first full-time job performing autopsies.
05:57Had he worked before as a forensic doctor?
05:59No.
06:00And in Indianapolis, could he do autopsies?
06:03Yes, and a lot of them.
06:06He did hundreds and hundreds of autopsies.
06:09I started to focus on Indianapolis,
06:11and all of a sudden, my world opened up.
06:14He had been arrested and charged for driving on his way to work
06:18early in the morning.
06:20From there, it was story after story about his incompetence,
06:24about his inability to make a correct diagnosis
06:27in cases of child deaths,
06:29which is the most horrible thing you can face,
06:32and he was messing those up.
06:34And so these families were destroyed
06:36because he didn't know what he was doing.
06:39After being fired because of those scandals,
06:42Dr. Gill moved west and found a job in Los Angeles.
06:46Dr. Gill also failed miserably in Los Angeles.
06:50He was unable to do a proper autopsy.
06:53It was then that he found a job doing autopsies
06:56in northern California for the Forensic Medical Group.
07:02I am still to this day curious
07:04as to what they saw in this person
07:06that made them reach out and say,
07:08come work with us and work on important cases of murder.
07:14Hello, it's Chris.
07:16The team of defense lawyers decided to face the accusation
07:19that Reynolds had discovered.
07:21The accusation was refused to withdraw the charges,
07:24but the lawyers were concerned about Dr. Gill.
07:29So they began to prepare him
07:31to answer questions about his past and about the autopsy.
07:35We need to prepare good answers for everything they may raise.
07:39And they recorded the sessions.
07:41In this case, I think I really slipped up.
07:45I should have done,
07:46because when the trial began,
07:48the accusation was forced to recognize the existence of the inks
07:51and give them to the defense.
07:53There are deficiencies in the autopsy.
07:55You know, we've kind of alluded to that,
07:58but I can be more specific in that.
08:01And then we spent the next several days in amazement.
08:05It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
08:08Ever.
08:10In fact, it was on the left side back in here.
08:14But that's something I don't want to say.
08:17Dr. Gill was lying about his findings,
08:21lying about his background,
08:24to the point that the prosecution could not go forward.
08:28He came into court one morning and dismissed all the charges.
08:34But in the official files,
08:36that death is still a homicide,
08:39so the community still doesn't know what really happened.
08:43Is it possible that the guilty man walked?
08:46Not in my mind.
08:48There were no signs of death by asphyxiation.
08:51And I think it's sad that the community is left saying,
08:55did he or didn't he?
08:57Because of an incompetent autopsy.
08:59Completely incompetent.
09:01Yes.
09:02In a caustic report on the case,
09:05the California State Attorney's Office concluded
09:08that the prosecution was guilty, among other things,
09:11of hiding evidence about Dr. Gill.
09:14The prosecutor was suspended and removed from the state attorney's office for four years.
09:19The report went even further,
09:21describing Dr. Gill as an incompetent forensic,
09:24but despite that, he was not suspended.
09:26On the contrary, he continued to do autopsies for the forensic medical group.
09:31This is not an isolated case.
09:34A national investigation revealed that there is no federal supervision
09:38of the forensic medical groups or the agencies in which they work.
09:45We also discovered that in Massachusetts,
09:47parts of corpses were lost on several occasions.
09:50In Michigan, they found the corpse of a banker
09:52and didn't see the bullet hole in his neck.
09:55In Nebraska, some murderers were released due to incompetent autopsies.
10:00And in Mississippi,
10:02they sentenced innocent people to life imprisonment.
10:05Sometimes the only reason that an autopsy is correct or incorrect
10:09depends on the side of the state border where you are.
10:13There are areas where, on one side of the border,
10:16there is a state forensic doctor and the autopsy is competent.
10:20Instead, on the other side of the border,
10:22there may be a judge of instruction with few resources
10:25and even less training to investigate a murder.
10:31In more than 1,300 counties around the country,
10:33there are judges of instruction who are elected politicians
10:36and conduct murder investigations.
10:41There are judges of instruction who try to work on murder cases
10:45but they don't have the necessary training,
10:47they lack resources, infrastructure, and they don't have that ability.
10:51I guess you really have to ask yourself
10:53if you want someone who has studied medicine
10:55and has specialized training
10:57to decide the cause and the way in which we have died.
11:02Or?
11:04Or take your chances.
11:17Tim Brown graduated from a professional training institute
11:20and later worked as a construction worker in the Malboro County,
11:23South Carolina.
11:27He is also the elected judge of instruction,
11:29which means that when someone dies unexpectedly,
11:32he is the one who decides how it happened.
11:35There was a time when the judge of instruction was blind, right?
11:38Yes, sir.
11:39That happened here, in the county of Malboro.
11:42Mr. Francis Stanton was a blind knight.
11:45Was he a judge of instruction for 40 years?
11:47I don't know the truth, but a long time, yes.
11:50So you got elected and you, let's say, dove into the subject.
11:55Yes, sir.
11:57Up to the bottom.
12:00I've been elected seven times.
12:12And the body was found over there?
12:14Yes, sir. It was over right there.
12:16Do you see where that old log is?
12:19Yes.
12:20We didn't find any identification.
12:22There was no wallet.
12:23We didn't find a watch, or a ring, or a necklace.
12:26Nothing?
12:27No.
12:29If they had found the body just a few meters away,
12:32the investigation would have corresponded to another department of forensic medicine perfectly equipped,
12:37that of North Carolina.
12:39But the body appeared in South Carolina,
12:41so the case corresponded to Judge Brown.
12:44Like most judges of instruction, Judge Brown does not perform autopsies,
12:48so he sent the body for an autopsy to a private clinic more than 150 kilometers away.
12:54The autopsy was done outdoors, in an old garage behind the hospital.
13:02It was sometimes very hot, especially at that time of year, in August.
13:06It was inevitable that the decomposition process would accelerate.
13:11So you did the autopsy in the garage?
13:14Correct.
13:15Correct.
13:16And then we sent the body to Tim Brown.
13:19Based on the autopsy, Brown described that death as a homicide.
13:23But he faced a dilemma.
13:25He did not have a refrigerated chamber in which to store the body in decomposition of that unknown victim,
13:30nor means to bury it.
13:33So he decided to incinerate his remains.
13:36This night we will talk about the story, still without clarifying,
13:39of the father of the basketball star Michael Jordan.
13:41James Jordan disappeared three weeks ago.
13:45A few days after I decided to incinerate the body,
13:48I was watching the CBS night news when they gave the news of the disappearance of Michael Jordan's father.
13:55And I thought, wow, that could be my Juan without a name.
13:59I was very surprised.
14:01Could it be?
14:02Yes, it was possible.
14:03I think I said, that could be my man.
14:07The dental records confirmed that the body that Tim Brown had found,
14:11was in fact the father of Michael Jordan.
14:13This complicates the investigation of the FBI.
14:16Two men were convicted of the murder,
14:18and the Jordan family could only bury some ashes.
14:21The media unanimously agreed that the judge-instructor was the father of Michael Jordan.
14:27The media unanimously agreed that the judge-instructor should not incinerate his body.
14:33You had to fix it with the means you had.
14:36I did, yes.
14:37And I still think that the decision I made was professional.
14:41Many people think that because of this incident things have changed.
14:45Well, it can be attributed to this incident, there is no doubt about that.
14:49Have the requirements changed to be a judge-instructor?
14:53The truth, I can not speak of that, because the changes do not affect me.
14:59Even today, the judges of instruction Carolina del Sur,
15:02still have limited access to refrigerated chambers.
15:06But there are new requirements to become a judge.
15:10It is necessary to have a degree in high school education.
15:15The main problem in this country is the system of judges of instruction,
15:20which basically chooses someone without experience in the field.
15:24And that's absurd.
15:27How often do you think people who are going to vote think,
15:32my candidate is Mr. Jones because he is a good judge-instructor?
15:39In some communities you could introduce a dead judge-instructor,
15:43and would be elected if he had the necessary support.
15:50I met a judge-instructor for the first time 20 years ago,
15:54when I covered the news about crimes and violence
15:57in the New Orleans Department of Police.
16:01Then the judge-instructor of New Orleans was Dr. Frank Mignard, a topologist.
16:0620 years later, Dr. Yass, as well known, is still in his position.
16:11He is the judge-instructor with more years of service in the United States.
16:20This is not very big.
16:22No, it is not.
16:24During Hurricane Katrina, the judge became part of the folklore of the city
16:28when he crossed the flooded streets to get to work.
16:31There were two meters of water where those boats are.
16:34There I am, and you can see my gun, John Wayne.
16:37Mignard's exploits served him to be re-elected.
16:41You are the judge-instructor.
16:43Yes.
16:44How many times have you been elected?
16:46Ten.
16:47Ten?
16:48Ten times, for four years.
16:49So you are a politician.
16:50Do not call me a politician.
16:52I do not consider myself a politician.
16:54I am more of a public servant.
16:58But you are not a forensic doctor.
17:00No, no.
17:01I was a topologist before I became a judge-instructor.
17:06I have five forensic doctors under my command.
17:11But it is Judge Mignard who interprets the findings of his forensic
17:15and who decides whether death is or not a homicide.
17:19Some of his decisions have been very controversial.
17:22For example, in the case of Adolf Archie.
17:25Red alert.
17:26Injured agent.
17:27Injured agent.
17:29Twenty years ago, Adolf Archie fled after killing a police officer.
17:32The suspect flees on foot towards Chartres.
17:36When the police caught Archie on the radio,
17:38a terrible message was heard.
17:40Killed S.
17:41Everything is being recorded, you know?
17:43Killed S.
17:45The next morning, Adolf Archie was dead.
17:49According to the autopsy carried out in the office of the judge-instructor Mignard,
17:53Adolf Archie had a fractured skull, a broken rib,
17:56blood-soaked lungs,
17:58blows to the lips,
18:00and other typical wounds in someone who has died from a brutal beating.
18:04But at first, the judge-instructor Mignard left the cause of death blank.
18:09Later, he publicly said that Archie had died from an accidental fall.
18:16In many cases, he is always accused of being part of the police force.
18:20Correct, yes.
18:21Even a police officer involved in one of the most famous cases was a friend of his.
18:26Yes.
18:27The case of Adolf Archie.
18:28Adolf Archie, yes.
18:29You claimed that the cause of death was undetermined when he was under police custody.
18:35Yes, and what?
18:36But very violent.
18:38Yes, and what's wrong with that, if it's the truth?
18:41After the scandal that was formed with his qualification of Archie's death as accidental,
18:45Mignard changed it for that of homicide.
18:47But he continued to affirm publicly that it had been an accidental death.
18:52With the medical evidence questioned,
18:54no charge was presented against the police officers involved.
19:02That incident marked a milestone in this city.
19:05I had the impression that in this community,
19:08they could kill Adolf Archie with a brutal beating, in broad daylight.
19:13And nothing would happen as a result of that.
19:16In this way, the community sent an extremely pernicious message.
19:21Everything is worth it.
19:23Something that turned out to be true after the sequels of Hurricane Katrina,
19:27when the New Orleans police lost control.
19:31When Henry Glover's body was discovered in a burned car,
19:34all the evidence pointed out that those responsible for his death were police officers.
19:40But Judge Instructor Mignard did not qualify this death as homicide,
19:43so there was no investigation into the crime.
19:48A burned body inside a burned-out car?
19:51Well, to begin with...
19:52Behind a police station?
19:54Well, look at it that way.
19:56Now, look at it from my point of view.
19:58We can't.
19:59We don't know.
20:02There's no way I can say that it was a homicide.
20:05There's no way of telling you how and why this man died.
20:11But last year, an extraordinary federal investigation
20:14discovered that Henry Glover's death had actually been a homicide,
20:18and a New Orleans police officer was convicted of the murder.
20:24As a result, many people have the impression
20:27that the police forces have a great influence,
20:30let's put it that way,
20:31when it comes to classifying a death.
20:34In that case, I say,
20:38the police have nothing to do with my classifications.
20:43And we have had confrontations with the police and the district attorney,
20:47and we always come out on the palace of truth.
20:53You've got to keep that in your mind.
20:55Palace of truth.
20:57The point is, the truth is what we look for.
21:02The truth is what we look for.
21:04And we don't care who wins or who loses.
21:08But we have found new cases that reveal cracks in the palace of truth
21:12of judge instructor Minjar,
21:14like the case of Kane Miseli.
21:17On the morning of January 4, 2009, 43-year-old Kane Miseli
21:21went to the emergency room of the Tulane Medical Center,
21:24complaining of a severe asthma attack.
21:29When the medical staff tried to call the ambulance,
21:31even though it was hard for him to breathe,
21:33Kane, who had a history of psychiatric problems, resisted,
21:37and the hospital called the police.
21:41The police brought her here,
21:42to the psychiatric wing of the prison run by the sheriff.
21:47Despite her asthma attack,
21:49the guards immobilized her,
21:51laying her on the bed of the cell,
21:53and tying her with five straps.
21:57According to the register of the same detention center,
22:00Kane told the guards that she couldn't breathe.
22:03She tried to escape and almost got it.
22:06Then four guards reduced her.
22:09Only when they couldn't find her pulse,
22:11they notified the ambulance that would take Kane urgently to the hospital.
22:15That was when they called Mike, her father.
22:19We got there as quickly as we could.
22:23The doctor told us that there was no hope.
22:29And we got together and talked, you know,
22:33and decided to take her off the respirator and the thing.
22:38As soon as they did,
22:43she quit breathing.
22:45And it took about five minutes for her heart to slowly fade away.
23:01We were taken to another room,
23:03and they locked the door.
23:07They sat us down,
23:10looked me straight in the eye,
23:12and told me,
23:14Mr. Micelli, you need to have this investigated.
23:17This should not have happened.
23:21Something is wrong.
23:26Kane Micelli's body was sent to the judge's office in Minyar,
23:30where they decided to perform an autopsy,
23:33for which a veteran forensic doctor,
23:36Dr. Paul McGarry,
23:38the same person who performed the autopsy of the case of the death of Adolf Archie,
23:42and other controversial cases.
23:44Dr. McGarry found puncture marks on Kane Micelli's arm,
23:48and despite the fact that the analysis did not find traces of drugs in his blood,
23:52he reported that the cause of death had been an overdose.
23:57The judge of instruction Minyar classified the case as accidental death.
24:01For Mike Micelli, that only meant one thing.
24:04Covering.
24:06So he decided to investigate it.
24:09Yes.
24:11Was his case of asthma serious?
24:13Micelli went to Mary Howell,
24:15a lawyer who had investigated other deaths
24:17in which the New Orleans police had been involved.
24:21They try to minimize everything related to asthma.
24:26Dr. McGarry has worked for Dr. Minyar for many years.
24:30Are his autopsies, his findings,
24:33are they a problem he usually faces?
24:35Yes, they are.
24:36If I know the autopsy has been done by Dr. McGarry,
24:39and the victim was detained,
24:41I am going to take a second autopsy.
24:44Because the experience we have,
24:46we think that the department is not reliable.
24:49And when we perform those second autopsies,
24:51we always discover surprising things.
24:54Do you know Mary Howell?
24:55Oh, yes.
24:56What she says is that,
24:59systematically,
25:01in many cases carried out by Dr. McGarry,
25:06the second autopsies showed that the cause of death
25:10had been, in fact,
25:12different from what he had determined.
25:16I have to believe what my forensic scientists say.
25:20I couldn't do this job
25:22if I didn't believe them completely.
25:25100%.
25:26Without a doubt.
25:30But McGarry never gave me any reason
25:35not to believe him.
25:38But we know that despite his statements,
25:41Judge Minyar knows perfectly well
25:43some serious errors in Dr. McGarry's work.
25:47Mike Miseli discovered one of them
25:50when sending his daughter's body to Alabama
25:52to be examined by Dr. James Lauridsen,
25:55an independent forensic doctor hired by him.
26:00The forensic doctor found puncture marks on the arm
26:04and came to the conclusion
26:06that it was a death related to drugs.
26:09But, in fact, all of the puncture marks
26:12were therapeutic.
26:14Drawing blood, intravenous vials,
26:17that kind of thing.
26:19And, in fact, her cause of death
26:21was something completely different,
26:23unrelated to the consumption of drugs.
26:27As I examined her lungs,
26:29it was very clear to me
26:31that her lungs and all of the airways
26:35were filled with mucus.
26:40I went ahead and did a microscopic analysis
26:43of the tissues
26:45and it confirmed to me
26:47that this was a very severe case
26:49of bronchial asthma.
26:51That simple?
26:52It was that simple.
26:54When you discovered that she had been tied to bed
26:57and that she was asthmatic,
26:59what was your reaction?
27:01To put an asthmatic black
27:04and then to tie him down
27:06during an acute asthma attack
27:09is nearly the same as giving him a death sentence.
27:13If you're not treated medically
27:16and you lay him down, tie him down,
27:19it's almost certain that he's going to die.
27:22In 2010,
27:24Miseli filed a complaint against the sheriff
27:26and the aid workers
27:28allegedly involved in the death of Kane.
27:31This is before it was amended.
27:33She also denounced Dr. McGarry,
27:35the forensic doctor of the judge of instruction, Minjar.
27:38Now they have qualified him as a natural death.
27:40With the trial still pending,
27:42the judge of instruction, Minjar,
27:44reviewed McGarry's autopsy
27:46and changed the cause of death.
27:48This is what supposedly
27:50was the cause of his death.
27:52And although they have written badly,
27:54we know what they're talking about.
27:56But to date, the New Orleans authorities
27:58have refused to open an investigation
28:00for the death of Kane Miseli.
28:02There's no reason for a family
28:06to have to go through this.
28:09It seems to me that that forensic doctor
28:12and that judge are enablers.
28:17They find what the sheriff's department
28:22wants them to find.
28:26Despite our repeated attempts,
28:28Dr. McGarry has refused to talk to us.
28:32Dr. McGarry, I'm Lowell Berman.
28:35I've been trying to talk to you for a couple of days.
28:37Would you talk to us?
28:41So I take it you don't have anything to say?
28:44After changing the cause of Kane Miseli's death,
28:47Judge Minjar stopped working with Dr. McGarry
28:50after 30 years.
28:54In addition to the cases of Miseli, Glover and Archie,
28:57the conclusions of independent autopsies
28:59of other cases in which the police are involved
29:02have questioned the findings of Judge Minjar.
29:05That's what people point to when they say
29:07you're collaborating with the police
29:09because you're an elected official
29:11with political invoices to pay
29:14and you help police authorities
29:16when they're in a jam.
29:19Well, we help anybody who's in a jam.
29:23Anybody, up to a certain point.
29:26But, of course, I wouldn't break the law
29:29to help anybody.
29:31These things have a way of looking bad
29:34when you are reporting about them
29:36like you do.
29:38But I don't even know who those people are
29:40that you're talking about.
29:44At the request of Judge Minjar,
29:46we give him a list of other controversial cases.
29:49Later he would tell us that all the cases
29:51were under investigation
29:53and that he couldn't make official statements.
29:59In New Orleans, lawyers declare
30:02that when an autopsy is made
30:04to a victim by police shooting
30:06or someone who has died while in custody,
30:09police shooting or arrested,
30:11and the autopsy has been done
30:13by a foreign lawyer from the judge's office,
30:16they routinely ask for a second autopsy.
30:19That's unfortunate
30:21because it implies that their cases
30:23are not credible.
30:26I've always thought that the best friend
30:28of the police forces,
30:30and those that are related to law enforcement,
30:33that the best friend
30:35law enforcement has to have
30:37has to be an objective, honest,
30:40straightforward, careful autopsy.
30:44Due to the perception of partiality
30:46and other problems affecting
30:48crime investigations throughout the country,
30:50Dr. Marcela Fierro recently collaborated
30:52in a study of the National Academy of Sciences.
30:56Her number one recommendation
30:58was to remove the judges of instruction.
31:00And that was not a new recommendation.
31:02It's the fourth time
31:04that a national study
31:06recommends that forensic investigations
31:08be carried out by doctors.
31:10Specifically, specialized doctors.
31:13This is not a new concept.
31:15It's a matter of professionalism.
31:18I'm not against the judges of instruction.
31:20I'm in favor of professionalism.
31:28I've been practicing as a forensic lawyer
31:30for more than 35 years.
31:33And I'm still surprised
31:35by the number of places in this country
31:37that lack an efficient criminal investigation system.
31:41Dr. Ross Humboldt of New Mexico
31:43was one of the authors of the study
31:45in which a national regulation is recommended
31:47and that all the forensic departments
31:49of the country are inspected and authorized.
31:53It amazes me that accreditation is not required
31:56for something as important for our government
31:58as legal forensic medicine.
32:01For anything, a title is required.
32:05Hospitals have an authorization.
32:08Barbers have a title.
32:10It would be appropriate to expect
32:12that the legal investigation system
32:14in case of death
32:16periodically subject to inspections
32:18for its approval.
32:20We need a national regulation
32:22because there are many differences between states.
32:25Research agencies should be directed
32:27by a forensic doctor
32:29and not by an elected official
32:31to meet the new requirements.
32:33The National Academy of Sciences
32:35says that most of its offices
32:37perform exemplary work, like Las Vegas.
32:39I'm not so much concerned about
32:41who runs the office as their integrity,
32:43their professional experience,
32:45and their ability.
32:48The Las Vegas office run by Murphy
32:50was the model for CSI.
32:52He was the only instructor judge
32:54that the National Academy of Sciences
32:56invited to testify.
32:58He contributed with his testimony
33:00to the study of the National Academy of Sciences.
33:02Do you support his recommendations?
33:04Not entirely.
33:05What do you disagree with?
33:07I don't agree with the removal
33:09of the instructor judge's office.
33:11You can't fix a complex issue
33:13with such a drastic decision.
33:15A drastic decision.
33:16Do you want to end all this?
33:18I think what they want to say is
33:20let's end all this and go in this direction.
33:23There's a Chinese proverb that says
33:25be careful what you ask for.
33:27I doubt that the system could function
33:29without instructor judges.
33:31The first thing is to have enough foreign doctors.
33:33If you don't have that,
33:35the whole system collapses.
33:38There's a huge demand
33:40and there is very little supply.
33:45At least a thousand foreign doctors
33:47would be needed to carry out
33:49all the research in this country.
33:51But according to the National Academy of Sciences,
33:54there are currently less than half in exercise.
33:58For many years,
34:00the medical legal system
34:02has been so poorly funded
34:04that the salaries were not competitive
34:06and the facilities were terrible.
34:13There was a survey done a few years ago
34:15and 10% of the offices didn't have X-rays.
34:18Think about that.
34:20The X-rays are a 19th century device.
34:24A medical instrument.
34:26And those offices don't have X-rays?
34:28What I'm saying is
34:30if you have poor facilities
34:32and low salaries,
34:34you're not going to attract the professionals.
34:38To reform the legal research system,
34:40according to the study of the National Academy of Sciences,
34:43the support of the federal government would be required.
34:46At present, the US government
34:48practically does not finance
34:51the lawyers or the judges of instruction.
34:54One of the subsidies
34:56was for an office to buy
34:58a new refrigerator
35:00because the one they had
35:02was closed with a belt.
35:04That's how poorly funded they are.
35:06I myself have worked in an old garage
35:11with a single light bulb
35:13hanging from the roof.
35:17A single light bulb
35:19on my autopsy table.
35:23For a long time,
35:25no one in the federal government
35:27has dealt with forensic medicine.
35:36The Los Angeles County
35:38has one of the largest
35:40and most active forensic departments in the country.
35:42But since it doesn't have enough resources,
35:44it only investigates a part of all the deaths.
35:47We deal with approximately
35:4920,000 deaths a year.
35:52But that's only a small percentage
35:54of all that happens in Los Angeles County.
35:57There's probably between 60,000 and 70,000 deaths a year.
36:01So you only see one in every three cases
36:04of death every year.
36:06Correct.
36:08In fact, there are a lot of homicides
36:10that no one knows about.
36:12Correct. When you only see one in every three cases,
36:15the possibilities of a homicide
36:17are pretty great.
36:21I don't have the staff
36:23or the funding available
36:25to investigate and respond
36:27to all those deaths.
36:29I can barely handle them right now.
36:34One of the least likely groups
36:36to be investigated
36:38is also one of the most vulnerable,
36:40the elderly.
36:42There's a tendency
36:44to assume
36:46that just because somebody is older
36:48that they have died
36:50of an old age related disease
36:52as opposed to
36:54something else.
36:58But what's actually killing them?
37:00The caution
37:02is with the elderly.
37:04Careful.
37:06They're not always an advantageous asset.
37:10On November 6, 2007,
37:12El Morky Tower,
37:1480 years old,
37:16died.
37:18He lived here in Silverado,
37:20a high-class residence
37:22in Los Angeles County.
37:24According to the death certificate,
37:26he died of natural causes.
37:28He stopped breathing,
37:30and his heart failed him.
37:32No one denounced any irregularity.
37:34It's kind of an honor code.
37:36I'd love to have the staff
37:38sufficient to investigate
37:40the residences.
37:42They're fraught with potential risks.
37:44But if something went wrong
37:46in one of those residences,
37:48unless someone denounced it,
37:50there's a good chance
37:52that the case would go unnoticed
37:54without even being seen by a foreigner.
37:58Mr. Kitower was buried,
38:00but his family received a call
38:02the next day.
38:04An anonymous informant claimed
38:06that the caretaker of Silverado
38:08had been hit and died
38:10as a result of the beating.
38:12The only way to know
38:14if that was true
38:16was by exhuming the body
38:18to perform an autopsy.
38:22They found a myriad of injuries.
38:24They found bruising on his face,
38:26on his chest,
38:28bruising on his arms.
38:30We actually brought in an expert
38:32in radiology to solve
38:34the department's office.
38:36Mr. Kitower had 28 fractures
38:38on his ribs.
38:40He had a fractured sternum,
38:42a fracture to his larynx,
38:44and crushed toes.
38:46Yes, and the crushed toes
38:48weren't a fall injury.
38:50That was a crushing injury,
38:52like a brick.
38:54The injury to the larynx,
38:56that's not the kind of injury
38:58you would get from falling.
39:00That's more likely to injury
39:02or to the foreigner that you get
39:04As a result of the autopsy,
39:06the district attorney
39:08quoted Silverado's employees
39:10who stated that Cesar Ulloa,
39:12one of the caretakers,
39:14hit Mr. Kitower.
39:16One person just appeared
39:18to be Mr. Kitower,
39:20a few days before his death.
39:22They saw him put a blanket
39:24over his head as he was
39:26hitting him in the head
39:28and the trunk.
39:30From what you're describing,
39:32we don't know exactly
39:34what was going on.
39:36Someone should have known.
39:38When we first heard about
39:40the likelihood that there
39:42could have been a problem,
39:44we just didn't believe it.
39:46We felt that this particular
39:48caregiver was a model caregiver.
39:50He was the main caregiver
39:52of the month award.
39:58He said you have a medical director
40:00on site?
40:02Yes.
40:04And we have physicians
40:06who visit the patients.
40:08We have physicians who visit
40:10the patients every 24 hours
40:12every day of the week.
40:14Given the kind of care
40:16that you have,
40:18the fact that you pay
40:20attention to the patient
40:22and the fact that you have
40:24nurses and doctors
40:26and a medical director,
40:28there were not many external
40:30evidences of any kind
40:32of wounds in Mr. Kittauer.
40:34He couldn't speak very well,
40:36so he couldn't tell us
40:38about his story.
40:40Mr. Kittauer's
40:42death certificate
40:44did not tell his story
40:46for the simple reason that
40:48the doctor who signed
40:50his death certificate
40:52was not his doctor
40:54and never saw the body.
40:56We don't have enough staff
40:58to look at all of them
41:00and the honor system
41:02that exists
41:04has broken down.
41:18If we had not exhumed
41:20Mr. Kittauer's body
41:22we could not have done anything
41:24else.
41:44It is important to have
41:46an efficient and quality
41:48investigation system.
41:50If you don't,
41:52you run the risk
41:54of not identifying
41:56risks for the community
41:58due to toxins
42:00or environmental contamination.
42:02I think the forensic medicine
42:04is a safety guard
42:06for that community.
42:12It's going to cost you
42:14approximately
42:16$2.25
42:18to $2.50
42:20per person per year
42:22which is probably
42:24less than what you pay
42:26for a Coca-Cola at the cinema.
42:28And that's
42:30at this time
42:32roughly the price
42:34of a good medical
42:36examiner's offices.
42:50But unlike
42:52the fire department,
42:54citizens are not aware
42:56of their value.
42:58There are no calls
43:00to the popular protest
43:02for legal investigations
43:04in case of death in this country.
43:06People don't manifest,
43:08don't protest because
43:10forensic doctors or judges
43:12are not doing their job.
43:14I think that many people
43:16only get this realization
43:18when they have a family member
43:20who dies violently
43:22and they want to know what happened.
43:24And when they are putting answers
43:26to those questions,
43:28people are grateful.
43:30If they are not good answers,
43:32there is no place they can go
43:34to get an answer.
43:36So they have to take what's out there.
43:38In this case,
43:40I think I really should have
43:42slipped up.
43:44I should have done because
43:46I'm not a good doctor.
44:16Sometimes,
44:18even if we try hard,
44:20a new information appears
44:22that forces us
44:24to correct things.
44:28Finally, Dr. Gill
44:30left Kansas City.
44:32It was then when he made
44:34the most amazing move
44:36of his career.
44:38Good morning.
44:40Dr. Gill's office.
44:42We found out that Dr. Gill
44:44was from California
44:46and that he did autopsies
44:48for the same company
44:50that he had worked with
44:52in the past,
44:54the Forensic Medical Group.
44:56He may have had problems
44:58in the past with the drink,
45:00but he has already
45:02overcome it.
45:04Dr. Gill is a good forensic
45:06doctor?
45:08Yes.
45:10And you believe he did
45:12this because he was prepared
45:14to give false answers
45:16in his statement?
45:18I know.
45:20You haven't read the State
45:22Advocacy Report?
45:24No, I didn't even know
45:26it existed.
45:28Did you ever look at those
45:30tapes? They're available.
45:32You see what happened
45:34in those sessions,
45:36the topics they dealt with.
45:38I've been told what happened,
45:40but I haven't read
45:42the Kansas City reports.
45:44I haven't studied them.
45:46So he was hired again,
45:48but you're not sure why.
45:50I'm trying to get some sense
45:52from what we've been told.
45:54It's not just that he didn't
45:56tell the truth.
45:58He actually knew
46:00what he was doing.
46:02All I can say is that
46:04when I've seen him
46:06and read his reports,
46:09do you have any quality control
46:11of someone controlling their job?
46:13Not all jurisdictions do that.
46:15Some jurisdictions do that.
46:17In the places where they work,
46:19does someone control their job?
46:21Yes.
46:22But not in all of them.
46:23Exactly.
46:24So there's no state control.
46:25There's no state control.
46:26If a coroner who has a client
46:28decides that he doesn't want Dr. Gil,
46:30would he send him to somebody else?
46:32Is that how you operate?
46:34Yes.
46:35He doesn't go to Sonoma anymore.
46:39But the Forensic Medical Group
46:41does autopsies for other 14
46:43Californian counties,
46:45and the public records
46:47allow us to verify that Dr. Gil
46:49did autopsies in one of them,
46:51Yolo County, near Sacramento.
46:53Despite rejecting numerous
46:55requests to interview him,
46:57Dr. Gil sent us a letter
46:59saying that since he'd returned
47:01to California, no one had
47:03questioned the quality of his work.
47:05The Forensic Medical Group
47:07works in Northern California
47:09for elect judges,
47:11who are also sheriffs.
47:13Yolo County's sheriff is Ed Prieto.
47:15Do you do background checks
47:17on the Forensics who work here?
47:19We check their background
47:21investigations to make sure
47:23they don't have any records
47:25or have been involved
47:27in criminal activities.
47:29We make sure that their titles
47:31are valid and have good references.
47:33Yes, we do.
47:34Because we got the name Dr. Gil
47:36and he has serious problems
47:38all over the United States.
47:40Really?
47:41In 2006, after a case
47:43he was involved in in Sonoma County,
47:45the state law office concluded
47:47well, they have a whole chapter
47:49I can give it to you.
47:51It's called Incompetent Forensic.
47:53That's the first news I have.
47:55I didn't know, and I think it
47:57alerted me to something
47:59that I always depend on
48:01the experts, and sometimes
48:03the experts don't give you
48:05the data you need.
48:07In one interview, the sheriff
48:09and judge of Prieto asked
48:11the Forensic group not to send
48:13Dr. Gil back to Yolo County.
48:15Shortly after, the Forensic group
48:17sent us a letter saying
48:19Dr. Gil no longer worked for them
48:21because there wasn't enough
48:23work to keep him
48:25as a full-time worker.
48:27Shortly before this show
48:29Dr. Gil told us that
48:31he was looking for a new job.
48:35And do you remember Dr. Paul McGarry, the New Orleans forensic doctor who stopped working for Judge Mignard?
48:47Dr. McGarry never stopped working. He continues to do autopsies for judges of instruction very close, in Mississippi.
48:56You can get a job in the office of the forensic doctor, in the office of the judge instructor, in many places.
49:05Because the political entity they depend on does not care.
49:09They have a budget and they are going to hire someone.
49:13They are going to fill the vacancy and if the person is not qualified, well, it does not matter.
49:18The problem is that the powerful are satisfied with the services that we give.
49:26When the powerful who control the money are satisfied with the services you give, they are not going to change.
49:36Well, the other problem is, and I want you to write this in huge capital letters on the screen,
49:43is that dead people do not vote. Period.
49:49Dead people do not vote.
49:52If dead people voted, I would be elected governor or president or something.