MISSOULA — The attorney general is shaking up the State Medical Examiner’s Office, in part to address concerns that a contract medical examiner in Billings continued to do autopsies on babies and young children despite demands that he stop because of his questionable findings in several Iowa cases.
Then-Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Gary Dale repeatedly told Thomas Bennett to quit performing autopsies on children, saying his findings risked wrongful prosecution or could jeopardize legitimate cases, The Missoulian reported.
Bennett had made at least four questionable findings of shaken baby syndrome while working as chief medical examiner in Iowa in the 1990s, case files indicated.
Dale demanded that Bennett refrain from doing autopsies on children as far back as 2000, according to correspondence that is part of a court record.
In 2005, Dale informed county coroners and attorneys that examinations of children by Bennett “are done outside his appointment as an associate state medical examiner.”
“Prior to coming to Montana in 1998, Dr. Bennett rendered problematic opinions regarding alleged non-accidental traumatic infant deaths in Iowa,” Dale wrote. “Despite verbal and three written instructions by me to ‘refrain from conducting Montana coroner-requested autopsies on children,’ Dr. Bennett has continued to perform these examinations.”
In late June, the attorney general’s office notified Barnett that his appointment as associate state medical examiner would end on July 1.
Bennett declined comment when reached by The Associated Press on Monday.
Attorney General Tim Fox said that under the new structure, the medical examiner will appoint deputies in both Missoula and Billings.
“Then you have a very clear power to hire and fire,” Fox said last week. “You have a chief state medical examiner who has very clear supervisory responsibilities over deputy medical examiners.”
The medical examiner’s concerns over Bennett came to a head last September, said Fox’s chief of staff, Mike Milburn.
Dale and deputy medical examiner Walter Kemp recently resigned, with Kemp’s letter of resignation saying he was leaving an “unworkable situation.”
After a lengthy evaluation, Fox decided to restructure the office, Milburn said.
Fox said he did not believe any of Bennett’s work on children would result in wrongful convictions because Dale and Kemp would have notified the attorney general’s office of such cases.
In Iowa, a couple pleaded guilty in 1997 to involuntary manslaughter at the recommendation of their attorney after Bennett ruled their son died of shaken baby syndrome. The convictions were thrown out in 1998 after another medical examiner found the boy died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In other cases where Bennett ruled the death was caused by shaken baby syndrome, a caregiver was acquitted after three trials, another case was dismissed by prosecutors during jury selection and another case was not prosecuted.
Several medical examiners suggested Iowa officials review all of Bennett’s shaken-baby cases.
The Montana attorney general’s office reviewed some cases that involved Bennett, but officials declined to discuss any findings.