Prosecutor: Former top state pathologist did not commit crime

Nov. 15--The Orange County District Attorney will not file criminal charges against a former state pathologist accused of mishandling evidence in two homicide cases, he said Friday.

District attorney Jim Woodall said the state's investigation did not prove that a crime occurred or show that the pathologist intended to commit a crime.

But the case may have exposed concerns about the quality of work at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and how that work is documented.

In September, the State Bureau of Investigation began investigating Dr. Clay Nichols, North Carolina's deputy chief medical examiner. A tip alleged that Nichols mishandled or did not properly document evidence in two unsolved murder cases in 2011.

The bureau alerted Woodall because his district includes Chapel Hill, where the state medical examiner's office was located until it moved to Raleigh last year.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner dismissed Nichols last week. Woodall said Nichols, who earned about $192,000 annually, cooperated with the investigation.

"The fact that no crime was charged, that doesn't mean there was absolutely no issue here," Woodall said. "There's obviously work that needs to be done to insure that good quality work is coming out of the medical examiner's office."

Woodall said he's been in contact with several district attorneys and lawyers who have cases in which Nichols performed the autopsy. He also said the SBI is open to investigating additional claims about Nichols' work.

Woodall said he was going to meet next week with representatives of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the medical examiner's office.

"There could be an issue of how things are documented," Woodall said. "When that type of information comes to light, it's incumbent on DHHS to look at it and make some assessments to see how things could be improved."

In a statement, Dr. Robin Cummings, deputy secretary for Health Services, said she was pleased with the district attorney's decision. She also noted that the investigation pointed out personnel shortages at OCME.

Earlier this month, the agency told employees that on a temporary basis Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Deborah Radisch would focus solely on autopsies and other aspects of suspicious death cases and would not perform administrative duties.

Lou Turner, deputy chief of epidemiology for the state Division of Public Health, will assume Radisch's administrative duties, the memo said.

The National Association of Medical Examiners, an organization that sets guidelines for death investigations, recommends that pathologists not perform more than 250 autopsies in a single year. That's because mistakes can result from large caseloads, the group says.

Since 2001, 16 state pathologists exceeded the recommended workload, data show.

According to an Observer analysis, Nichols performed more than 900 autopsies since joining the medical examiner's office in 2011.

One of those involved the murder of Terrell Boykin, a 19-year-old Cumberland County man who's autopsy was among those investigated by the SBI.

Woodall said the Boykin case involved Nichols' alleged mishandling of a bullet or bullet jacket and whether the evidence was properly documented.

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