Bruce Goldfarb - OCME: Life in Americas Top Forensic Medical Center

September 10, 2014

Hunched over by the front door of my office building, trying to find the shade, I squint at my phone to read a text from my wife about picking me up after work. My garish red Hawaiian shirt and old-school canvas sneakers add a colorful splash to the West Baltimore corner as I stand next to the gleaming blue windows of the OCME, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Halfway up the block, Tawanda Jones and a dozen or so supporters are recording a video.

Four hundred and fourteen days, Jones says to the camera. It dont take that kind of time to do anything. It didnt take 414 days for my brother to be brutally murdered, and it shouldnt take 414 days for us to receive his whole entire autopsy report. Shame on you, medical examiners office, Goldfarb, and all of yall.

The camera pans to Shirley Anderson, Tyrone Wests mother. The medical examiners office had my sons body, she says. They took six months to come back with foolishness that my son had a heart attack. They missed all the key points. My son was beaten to death by ten to fifteen police officersThey beat my son. They omitted blunt-force trauma, asphyxiation from all the macing they did to him, tasing him, which caused his heart to stop beating. All of that was not mentioned in the report. They expect my family to accept that my son died of a heart attack? My son was healthy! He was healthy, make no mistakeOur problem with the medical examiner is, we know theyre hiding facts.

Jones gestures toward me, a middle-aged white guy in the background who looks like a befuddled roadie for Jimmy Buffetts band.

Get him on camera, Anderson says.

I only learned this later, watching the video posted to YouTube by the community activist organization Baltimore BLOC. I didnt notice them on the sidewalk until Jones walked toward me holding a sign reading ONE YEAR LATER NO COMPLETE AUTOPSY .

Sigh. Its a Wednesday. A West Wednesday.

Standing with Jones and other members of Tyrone Wests family is Duane Shorty Davis, a diminutive man with long dreadlocks and wearing a yellow reflective vest. Davis is an activist known for decorating toilets with newspaper clippings, political statements, and other odds and ends and leaving them around town. A few years ago, he was charged and acquitted of making a fake explosive device after placing one of his political art toilets in front of the Baltimore County courthouse. His provocations, in my mind, are harmlessly amusing. Im tempted to tell Shorty that Im a fan of his toilet work. We have a mutual friend, the cartoonist Tom Chalkley. Thats Smalltimore, as locals call it: the small-town connections that occur unexpectedly often in this big city.

I wish Shorty and I were friends. Hes an interesting and creative person. Chalkley told me that Shorty makes the best barbecue in Baltimore. Ive always wanted to try his cooking. Under other circumstances maybe we could have been friends. That is unlikely now with this invisible line drawn between us.

My friends enviously tell me I have the greatest job ever. Maybe sometimes it is. Im not sure theyd feel the same if they knew what the work really entailed. At the moment, despite the casual attire, I am a public official. I am the bad guy.

As the protesters approach, I make sure to remain within range of the video cameras overhead. Im not at all concerned for my safety. Ive met with the West family and their supporters many times in the past. Being monitored at the OCME is just standard operational security. The conversation may be uncomfortable, but uncomfortable conversations are a routine part of my job. Whatever is about to happen, I rely on rules of engagement that have guided me in the two years that I have been executive assistant to the chief medical examiner for the state of Maryland and as public information officer, the public face of the OCME.

Dont take it personally. They are angry at larger issues, of which I am just a convenient symbol. They arent angry at me as an individual. There is no reason to feel attacked or threatened. Dont argue. Keep it cool.

This much is not in dispute: Tyrone West died on July 18, 2013, while in the custody of police. For many Baltimoreans, West was yet another victim of excessive force that plagues the zero-tolerance, stop-and-frisk police tactics instituted under former mayor Martin OMalley. Wests family and their supporters have staged protests at various locations around town the states attorneys office, police headquarters, city hall, the OCME every Wednesday without fail since then. They are as resolute as ever to seek justice.

To me and the rest of the OCME, West is case number 13-6003.

Holding her homemade cardboard sign, Jones addresses me directly. You said thats my brothers full autopsy report, correct?

Right, I reply.

The complete autopsy report was published by the Baltimore Sun. The whole report is available online. The Baltimore City States Attorneys Office shouldnt have released the report to reporters. Thats a violation of COMAR, the Code of Maryland Regulations. Section 10.35.01.14: An individual, other than the custodian of the records of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner or a designee, may not copy or distribute the official report of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Oh well.

If thats the full autopsy report, Jones says, what in the world is my attorney subpoenaing right now, as we speak?

The case file. Weve had this conversation several times. Thats fine. We can go over it again, but the answers are still the same.

According to COMAR, the autopsy report is a public record unless a case is under investigation by any agency or pending criminal charges. The autopsy report is evidence, Dr. David R. Fowler the chief, the boss, the big enchilada, the alpha and omega, the final word lectured to me many times. In our criminal justice system, evidence is kept confidential. All other items in a case file investigator report, notes, sketches, photos, other documents are medical records under state and federal law. Individual files of the Chief Medical Examiner are not public records but are private medical records protected from disclosure, according to COMAR. While the autopsy report is public, requests for other information or material shall be accompanied by a court order or subpoena.

The sanctity of that case file Tyrone Wests medical record is guarded as diligently as it is for every one of the twelve thousand investigations the OCME conducts each year. This is true no matter who demands it, even a grieving and angry sibling, however righteous the cause.

On the day 223 West Wednesday protest, back in February, we spent the better part of an hour going over this same ground, lingering on the sidewalk in front of the OCME long after work hours. While the sun ebbed to twilight on that chilly afternoon, the West family and I talked about the autopsy report and case file, Tyrone Wests personal effects, and other concerns they expressed. Its all on video posted to YouTube. Anticipating the familys objection to the medical examiners findings, I gave them a printed copy of the state law outlining the process to challenge the cause and manner of death rulings. Maryland is the only state with an appeals process written into law.