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One Month In - Volusia County's Medical Examiner Resigns VOLUSIA SHOULD ABANDON "HOME RULE" CONTROL OF THE M.E.'s OFFICE |
May 19, 2018 |
Winston Churchill
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According to a recent Daytona Beach News Journal article - the Volusia County medical examiner has submitted her resignation letter effective June 1, 2018. According to the DNBJ - Dr. Sara Zydowicz's sudden resignation caught both the County Council and Sheriff Mike Chitwood by surprise. |
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In our OPINION Sheriff Chitwood is correct in his questioning of the county’s management of M.E. department. Sheriff Chitwood is further correct in his assessment that the validity of the M.E.'s office is crucial to the effective operations of our law enforcement agencies. See Above Linked DBNJ Article As detailed in an earlier DBNJ article, in 2015 the Volusia County M.E.'s office lost their national accreditation due to it's substandard facility. Since Seminole County contracts their M.E. service through the Volusia County M.E.'s office, all law enforcement agencies within these two counties are affected by the loss of this national accreditation. Further two State Attorney's offices are affected by the lack of these accreditation standards - Seminole County falls within the Eighteen Judicial Circuit, while Volusia County is part of the Seventh Judicial Circuit. The Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office VolusiaExposed.Com has been for years voicing our concerns regarding Volusia County operating it's own medical examiner's office. In short, we (VolusiaExposed.Com) believe that Volusia County government has neither the professional ability, nor the professional ethics, to effectively operate it's own M.E.'s office. Over the last two decades, the Volusia County M.E.'s office has been involved in two rather high profile death investigations. The 2001 death investigation of NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt, and the 2012 death investigation of Trayvon Martin. In our OPINION both death investigations were handled in a less than desirable manner. VolusiaExposed.Com did not exist in 2001 when Earnhardt was delivered to the Volusia County morgue. However, in 2001, members of this publication were employed within the Volusia County Departnment of Public Protection*, and these persons hold the OPINION that the Earnhardt matter was handled in a less than professional manner. |
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In our (VOLUSIAEXPOSED) September 16, 2013 article we explored and exposed some of our concerns regarding how authorities handled the Trayvon Martin autopsy / death investigation. When then County Spokesman, Dave Byron stated that VolusiaExposed.Com must be "clairvoyant" in our suspicions that there were serious problems running through the halls of the County M.E.'s office. However, it is of significance that their (Volusia County) Associate Medical Examiner, Dr. Shiping Bao was vocalizing similar concerns regarding the M.E.'s office - in the particular, regarding the handling of the Trayvon Martin autopsy. Dr. Bao actually conducted the autopsy of Trayvon Martin. |
Click The Below Imagine To Read Article  |
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Most M.E.'s offices within the State of Florida consist on multi-county districts supervised by the state government. Volusia County government under the authority of a special provision within the State's constitution opted some years ago to operate several functions of government in a "home rule" fashion. The operation of the M.E.'s office is one of these functions of government that Volusia County officials incorporated within their County Charter. So here is the rub. Volusia County operates it's M.E.'s office within their Department of Public Protection. However, several other divisions of county government also operate within the administration of this same Department of Public Protection, ie., the jail, Fire Rescue, Beach Safety and EVAC ambulance. So all in-custody jail deaths, deadly shootings attached to Beach Safety & the Sheriff's Office, or suspicious deaths attached to EVAC's response times are investigated by a sister division (M.E.'s Office) of that very same Department of Public Protection. How convenient that must be for the Volusia County Legal Department. |
Click The Below Imagine To Visit FLDME.COM  The Florida Medical Examiners Commission Meeting February 16, 2018 Click The Below Text To Read Entire Document  |
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In our OPINION - Volusia County residents deserve a fully accredited M.E.'s office that is independent of the influences of local governments (city & county). |
We look forward to your comments on this situation.
Drop us a line to let us know what you think.
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