Cyril Wecht Indicted
Dr. Cyril H. Wecht is a forensic pathologist whose long career has included work on such high-profile cases as the JFK assassination and the JonBenet Ramsey murder. He was indicted Friday on charges that he used his public position as a medical examiner in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, for private gain. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the charges against Wecht include allegations that he provided unclaimed cadavers from the county coroner's office to a local university, in exchange for lab space to use in his private practice.
The case is not without political overtones, and some of the lines of allegiance aren't easy to explain (except, perhaps, to closer students of Pittsburgh politics than we can claim to be.) Wecht is a Democrat who was recently appointed as the county's chief medical examiner after agreeing to resign if indicted. But the Republican to whom Wecht lost a 1999 race for county executive, Jim Roddey, helped to create the Wecht Legal Defense Fund in May. Wecht's indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, a Bush II appointee. But among his defense counsel is Richard Thornburgh, who served (you'll remember) as U.S. Attorney General under Reagan and Bush I, after a previous stint as Pennsylvania's Republican governor.
Whatever the politics of it all may be, Wecht says he is innocent of all charges.
Wecht recently testified as a defense expert, incidentally, for a military officer charged with torturing an Iraqi prisoner to death during an interrogation. The officer allegedly handcuffed the Iraqi, stuffed him head-first into a sleeping bag, wrapped the sleeping bag in electrical cord, and sat on the Iraqi's chest while inquiring into Saddam Hussein's whereabouts, placing his hand over the prisoner's mouth whenever the name of Allah passed the prisoner's lips. The prosecution expert opined that the prisoner was suffocated. Wecht reportedly testified that the prisoner died when his enlarged heart gave out under the stress of interrogation. Apparently the latter theory might be considered exculpatory. The jury is still out in the torture case.
Update 1/22/06: Reportedly, the jury in the torture trial has now acquitted the defendant of murder but convicted him of negligent homicide, with a potential sentence of 39 months.
Update 2/11/06: Wecht, meanwhile, has pleaded not guilty.
The case is not without political overtones, and some of the lines of allegiance aren't easy to explain (except, perhaps, to closer students of Pittsburgh politics than we can claim to be.) Wecht is a Democrat who was recently appointed as the county's chief medical examiner after agreeing to resign if indicted. But the Republican to whom Wecht lost a 1999 race for county executive, Jim Roddey, helped to create the Wecht Legal Defense Fund in May. Wecht's indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, a Bush II appointee. But among his defense counsel is Richard Thornburgh, who served (you'll remember) as U.S. Attorney General under Reagan and Bush I, after a previous stint as Pennsylvania's Republican governor.
Whatever the politics of it all may be, Wecht says he is innocent of all charges.
Wecht recently testified as a defense expert, incidentally, for a military officer charged with torturing an Iraqi prisoner to death during an interrogation. The officer allegedly handcuffed the Iraqi, stuffed him head-first into a sleeping bag, wrapped the sleeping bag in electrical cord, and sat on the Iraqi's chest while inquiring into Saddam Hussein's whereabouts, placing his hand over the prisoner's mouth whenever the name of Allah passed the prisoner's lips. The prosecution expert opined that the prisoner was suffocated. Wecht reportedly testified that the prisoner died when his enlarged heart gave out under the stress of interrogation. Apparently the latter theory might be considered exculpatory. The jury is still out in the torture case.
Update 1/22/06: Reportedly, the jury in the torture trial has now acquitted the defendant of murder but convicted him of negligent homicide, with a potential sentence of 39 months.
Update 2/11/06: Wecht, meanwhile, has pleaded not guilty.
posted by pn at 7:54 PM
5 Comments:
Cyril Wecht was indicited around 30 years ago for selling body parts to the Pitt Medical School...off the books. Not sure if charges were dismissed or he was found not guilty. I see a pattern.
You got to love a person who only tells the truth when he's forced to : Cyril Wecht is a forensic pathologist who believes that Kennedy's "back and to the left" motion indicates a shot from the Grassy Knoll. But when called as a expert witness in the Menendez retrial, he insisted that simple Newtonian physics isn't much use in determining how people will react to a shot. Full speed astern !
Cyril Wechts apples dont fall far from his tree, honorable DAVID WECHT? NOT JUSTICE FOR ALL.
So whats so bad about selling body parts- They did it in Transylvania and they weren't even capitalists-
I know someone in a very important position who could use a new brain-
If Dr. Wecht is found guilty then every politician in Allegheny county needs to be put on trail, (past & present). This is nothing more than a witch hunt! Wecht's "crimes" pale in comparison
to what other's in the Pittsburgh pulic eye have done and continue to do. Wecht should be SAINTED for all he has done for Western Pa!
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