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NNN0LHI (1743 posts)
Jan-27-02, 10:10 AM (ET)
Biography
Joye M. Carter, M.D.
Chief Medical Examiner
For Harris County, Texas
Dr. Carter received her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine in 1983. She completed her undergraduate studies at Wittenburg University in Springfield, Ohio, and graduated from high school in Indianapolis. After receiving her medical degree, she completed a four-year residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at Howard University Hospital. She also served as the Chief Resident in Pathology at Howard University and as a fellow in Forensic Pathology in Dade County, Florida in the late 1980s.
Board certified in Forensic Pathology and Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, Dr. Carter has served on the faculty of Howard University College of Medicine and George Washington University in the Pathology and Forensic Science Departments. She has joined the teaching faculty of Baylor Medical College, Department of Pathology; The University of Texas, Houston Health Science Center, Department of Pathology; is on the Board of Directors of the Gulf Coast Sickle Cell Association; and is an active member of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church.
Prior to assuming this position, Dr. Carter served as Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia. Previous military experience includes serving as Major and Chief Physician and Forensic Pathologist in the United States Air Force Medical Corps. Concurrently, while on military duty, Dr. Carter served as Deputy Chief Medical Examiner at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology where she was in charge of forensic education provided to the military, state department, and federal investigative agencies.
She has addressed the Supreme Court in South Africa on establishing an independent medical examiner system. She was course director and lecturer in the Homicide School of the Washington, D.C. Police Department, Department of Criminal Investigations, and she coordinated the Commission of Public Health, Anti-Violence Campaign. She has authored numerous articles and is actively involved in organ tissue transplantation issues.
http://www.joyemcarter.com/bio.htm
Medical Examiner fired for refusing to falsify evidence
says she suspected a frame-up in case
Prosecutors upset analysis didn't back theory
County pays her $375,000 to settle wistleblower suit
County settles suit / Whistleblowing doctor gets$375,000
Harris County agreed Tuesday to pay a former employee of the Medical Examiner 's Office $375,000 and to drop the county's appeal of her successful whistleblower lawsuit.
Harris County Commissioners Court accepted County Attorney Michael P. Fleming's recommendation to settle the case with Dr. Elizabeth "Libby" Johnson. Johnson sued the county in March 1997, contending that Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Joye Carter wrongly fired her for reporting potentially illegal cover-ups and sabotage at the office.
A jury sided with Johnson in February and awarded her $315,000 plus attorney's fees. The county immediately appealed the verdict to the First Court of Appeals.
Fleming said Tuesday that, in the intervening months, the county's bill has risen to $453,000. With the potential that costs would rise and the unlikely prospect of getting the verdict overturned, Fleming suggested the county cut its losses.
Fleming proposed settling the case for $375,000 and dropping the appeal - a suggestion Commissioners Court accepted unanimously Tuesday.
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:0PTN8Yj7CwgC:www.informed.org/MedicalExaminer.htm+dr+joye+carter+&hl;=en
Sunday, February 4, 2001
Harris County medical examiner fined for illegal autopsies, keeps job
HOUSTON (AP) — Harris County's chief medical examiner was fined $1,000 on Friday as part of a settlement reach with the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners for allowing an unlicensed pathologist to perform autopsies.
Dr. Joye Carter had faced stiffer punishment, including revocation of her medical license and the loss of her job, as a result of the investigation.
The agreement ends a three-year controversy that erupted when it was revealed that Carter had hired Delbert Van Dusen and allowed him to perform autopsies, including some in homicide cases, without a Texas medical license.
Under the Medical Practice Act, performing autopsies constitutes the practice of medicine. The state board said Carter denied she knowingly violated the act.
Her lawyer, Sam Stone, said Carter thought it was legal to allow Van Dusen to perform autopsies because state law does not say specifically that his or her staff must be licensed. The law does require a chief medical examiner to have a Texas medical license.
Van Dusen joined the medical examiner's office in August 1997 and performed up to 200 autopsies before it was revealed to the Harris County District Attorney's Office that he didn't have a Texas medical license.
Van Dusen, who was licensed to practice in Georgia and Indiana, received his Texas license after several rejections and a no-bill by a grand jury that investigated whether he illegally practiced medicine.
Opponents tried to have Carter fired for the Van Dusen incident and for attracting two whistleblower lawsuits, both of which the county lost. In October 1999, Harris County commissioners split on whether to fire Carter after they concluded their an investigation.<snip>
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:Ew5Pd9XhEIMC:www.reporternews.com/2001/texas/fine0204.html+dr+joye+carter+&hl;=en
Victory for Crime Lab Director accusing TX Lab of abuses
In the verdict, jurors said Medical Examiner Dr. Joye Carter and Johnson's
immediate supervisor, Dr. Ashraf Mozayani, were responsible for damaging
Johnson. The jury assessed $15,000 in damages for lost wages and benefits, and
$300,000 in future compensation damages.
"They put up all kinds of smokescreens and `rabbit trails,' but the jury saw
through it all," said Johnson's attorney, Mark LaSpina. "It was a clear
attempt by the county to make her look bad. She deserves compensation -- she's
gone through hell in this."
In final arguments, LaSpina left open the issue of damages for jurors. He said
later that the $1.5 million sought in the suit was a safeguard, in the event
jurors returned a higher verdict than the one delivered Monday.
McCorkle also ruled that Johnson's attorney's fees, which could run as high as
$130,000 or more, will be paid by the county.
Sanders did not comment on the verdict, although an appeal is planned.
Witnesses for Johnson attacked Mozayani as the one intent on repeatedly
pressuring Johnson with policies and criticism. Carter had little direct
involvement with Johnson.
Johnson's complaints about evidence suppression and alleged office bias toward
prosecutors began before Carter's arrival in July 1996, although Mozayani was
a key aide brought in by Carter.
42t8_K8I4UC:venus.soci.niu.edu/~archives/ABOLISH/jan98/0098.html+dr+joye+carter+&hl;=en" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/search?q=cache
42t8_K8I4UC:venus.soci.niu.edu/~archives/ABOLISH/jan98/0098.html+dr+joye+carter+&hl;=en
PARENTS AGAINST CORRUPTION AND COVERUP
Shelly's dead body was airlifted by Medstar helicopter to D. C. from the field after a mercy call from the good men of The Plains Fire and Rescue Squad. Shelly's autopsy pictures, especially two of her face suggest she was beaten. It demands explanation why the report of D. C. Coroner, Dr. Joye Carter, overlooked commenting on the fact that Shelly's lips were split in two places and that there are multiple contusions and abrasions to her face and body. It is a fact that influential people in The Plains tried to have the autopsy canceled (Cf. the Sheriff's files in the Shelly Malone case.) I wonder, though, why the Coroner has missed obvious facts and misstated others in her Autopsy Report which makes no mention of visible injuries to Shelly's face and torso photographed and recorded. (Cf. the autopsy photographs in the Sheriff's office sent by our lawyer as an attachment to his forty page memorandum to the Sheriff, dated January 23, 1995 )<snip>
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:eBx3fLLTIjEC:www.thepacc.org/Malone.html+dr+joye+carter+&hl;=en
POSSIBLE FURTHER FORENSIC INVESTIGATION:
Given the inconclusive autopsy results, further testing of the forensic evidence would seem to be crucial. Wilcher's body fluids, sent by the D. C. Medical Examiner to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology at Walter Reed Hospital, haven't yielded any clue as to cause of death. Apparently coroner Dr. Kim is still in possession of Wilcher's heart.
Sarah McClendon is petitioning Dr. JOYE CARTER of the D. C. Medical Examiner's office to submit this forensic evidence for further study. Dr. Carter hasn't moved with alacrity to permit or facilitate this.
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:ZHALeYJDJ4wC:www.webcom.com/~pinknoiz/covert/wilcher.html+dr+joye+carter+&hl;=en
County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Joye Carter said she cited Gulf War Syndrome as a contributing cause of death -- it was last among nine causes -- because it had been diagnosed by Department of Veterans Affairs doctors.
"This is a syndrome with multiple aspects," said Carter, who served as an Air Force medical examiner during Desert Storm. "We're not sure what it is. Its symptoms run the gamut -- strange chemical tastes, benign tumors, heart disease, heart palpitations. ... "
Another symptom is a psychological reaction similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, which is sometimes marked by substance abuse in former servicemen.
Ingram, said Dr. Sara McCarron, the Harris County pathologist who performed the autopsy, had a history of depression and alcohol abuse.
"He may have been self-medicating due to depression and/or post-traumatic stress disorder," she said.<snip>
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/death.htm
Bloodletting?
The medical examiner's controversial DNA expert is fired... for doing her job
If one of the reasons cited by the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office for its recent firing of Dr. Elizabeth Johnson is legitimate, other employees of the medical examiner should be forewarned: Don't work too much.
But if Johnson's take on the reason she was fired is correct, then the medical examiner's staff should take away another message: Abandon your scientific objectivity if your work doesn't conform to what cops and prosecutors think.
Johnson, a molecular biologist who had headed the county's DNA laboratory for five years, was informed on the Friday before Christmas that the M.E.'s office no longer needed her services. A memo to Johnson from her boss, Dr. Ashraf Mozayani, the medical examiner's chief toxicologist, indicates Johnson was terminated because she was disregarding her superiors' orders by putting in too many hours at the lab.
But Johnson firmly believes there was another motive for her firing -- that she refused to be a "team player" with police and prosecutors in the investigation of murder suspect Joe Vincent Durrett. Johnson's dismissal came 15 days after she had testified before a grand jury that reindicted Durrett for the 1995 murders of his ex-wife Martha Parmer and her sister Linda Harrison, who were found bludgeoned to death in the Pasadena home they shared.
A previous indictment of Durrett was dropped last year after tests that Johnson conducted on blood from the double-murder scene failed to support the conclusion by Pasadena investigators and the district attorney's office that Durrett was responsible for the killings. After the initial charges were dismissed, the D.A.'s office took the extraordinary step of having five of Johnson's case files subpoenaed by another grand jury and requesting that outside experts scrutinize her groundbreaking but controversial DNA testing techniques.
Johnson does plead guilty to working more hours than instructed, but says she did so out of necessity. The medical examiner's DNA lab has been understaffed since last summer, when the lab's serologist quit and an administrative assistant was reassigned. Compounding the manpower shortage, one of the two DNA analysts who worked in the lab under Johnson has recently been on vacation. Nevertheless, Johnson says, she and her two staffers were given more work and responsibility. In addition to being told to handle the serologist's job, Johnson and her assistants were assigned to oversee the intake and release of evidence, a job previously performed by a separate division of the M.E.'s office.
As a salaried employee, Johnson was never eligible for overtime pay. But after Dr. Joye Carter took over as the county's chief medical examiner last summer, Johnson says, she and her assistants were told that they needed approval to seek compensatory time for overtime beyond an eight-hour day -- approval that was not often granted.
"When they told us we couldn't work any comp time," says Johnson, "we just started giving the time away for free because we just could not keep up with the workload."
Two days before Johnson was let go, Mozayani informed her of a new policy that restricted working hours at the lab to between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Johnson says she pointed out that other DNA labs are often open 12 hours a day, because "some of these things could not be done in an eight-hour day." But her argument failed to sway Mozayani, who was brought to the M.E.'s office by Carter.
"I was told Dr. Carter wanted it this way," Johnson says of the restricted hours of operation.
Johnson acknowledges that she did not clear out of the building until 5:30 or 5:45 on the afternoon of the day following her notification of Carter's dictum. The next morning she was handed her walking papers.
"Your time sheet recording of time and your unauthorized attempts to obtain compensatory time have been discussed with you on numerous occasions," reads Mozayani's December 20 memo. "These actions, as well as others, have reflected your continued insubordination to authority."
Neither Carter nor Mozayani returned calls from the Press. But Alex Conforti, chief administrator of the medical examiner's office, while declining to comment on Johnson's termination, did confirm that the DNA lab is indeed understaffed.
As of this writing, in fact, "understaffed" is a dire understatement. One of Johnson's two assistants, Monica Puppi, resigned last week, and the other, Sara Bowne, submitted her resignation this week, leaving the DNA lab unstaffed. Their departures came at an especially inopportune time for Carter, who, according to Puppi, had promised that the M.E.'s office would quickly identify the remains of the victims of the December 22 explosion at the Wyman-Gordon Forging plant. Those identifications will rest heavily on DNA work. After the Wyman-Gordon tragedy, Carter and Mozayani suddenly rescinded the order that the DNA lab be vacated by 5 p.m.
"I was basically told to work around the clock," says Puppi.
"It's very interesting how rules are created and destroyed in the blink of an eye," Puppi wrote in her resignation letter to Carter. "When we needed more hands the most, we only lost the hands we already had .... I do not wish to be part of this working environment anymore."
That "environment" apparently required that employees shade the truth in order to get their jobs done.<snip>
http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/1997-01-09/news.html
Legal review of examiner's office sought
County official wants to know `what's going on over there'
Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack wants the county to hire a local law firm to review Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Joye Carter's hiring and firing practices in response to a second successful whistle-blower lawsuit against Carter's office.
Radack placed an item on the court's May 2 agenda calling on the county to hire Fulbright & Jaworski "to form an outside review of the employment practices of the medical examiner's office, " a review Carter said she welcomes.
Radack said he wants "to find out a very respectable law firm's opinion of what's going on over there."
The whistle-blower suits resulted in awards totaling $625,000 to two former employees who claimed that Carter fired them for reporting illegal or potentially illegal practices at the office.
A third former employee has threatened to file a third whistle-blower suit. Those suits and legal threats have cost Carter some support on the Commissioners Court.
Radack's move came only hours after about six of Carter's employees appeared before the Commissioners Court to show support for her.
"This is a spontaneous demonstration of support for our county medical examiner," Robert Reynolds, a laboratory employee and spokesman for the group, told the court.
"We have withstood internal as well as external forces attempting to discredit Dr. Carter and our office. We have served, and will continue to serve, the citizens of Harris County to the utmost with your continued support."
No member of the Commissioners Court responded to the employee's presentation, but Carter said later that she was "pleasantly surprised" by the show of support. She said the group was a small part of the many loyal members of her staff.
Radack said the outside legal review is necessary because the county attorney's office has been "tied up defending lawsuits" filed against Carter's office and could not investigate it while serving as its attorneys.
Before Radack's request became known, County Judge Robert Eckels criticized Carter's administration of her office, saying firing employees for reporting wrongdoing sends the wrong message to other county workers.
All county employees need to know they can report wrongdoing to his office without fear of retribution, Eckels said, but that doesn't appear to be true of Carter's workers.
"I think the message sent through these two lawsuits is that they cannot," he said. "And I think the court needs to, as a group, look at the problem with these lawsuits. Losing these lawsuits is a serious problem for the county."
Respondingt, Carter said, "It would be wonderful to have an attorney firm come in and see what practices the employees have been indulging in.
"I'd love them to come and do that ... While people are out wondering about our practices, when it comes down to getting something done and comes to death investigation, it's a top-notch office. And I'm very proud of my employees."
Carter also was critical of Eckels for criticizing her without speaking to her first.
"Judge Eckels makes these types of comments, but he doesn't talk to his department heads," she said. "There has not been one occasion on any of these problems he's ever discussed with me, nor has he been to the office in about four years. That's kind of puzzling."
Carter said Eckels refers to the lawsuits publicly, but will not respond to her phone calls.
The first of the two whistle-blower suits was filed by Dr. Elizabeth "Libby" Johnson, who was awarded $375,000 by a state jury in 1998. Johnson, who headed the medical examiner's DNA lab, claimed that she was fired for blowing the whistle on potentially illegal cover-ups at the office.
Dr. Marilyn Murr Doyle, a former pathologist, was awarded $250,000 in federal court last month. A jury found that Doyle was fired in 1998 because she reported that an unlicensed physician in the office had been allowed to perform autopsies.
http://www.hcdo.com/html/area_counties_roundup_may00.html
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