In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
TWO DOCTORS DISCIPLINED In Michelle O'Connell Homicide Case -- The System Begins to Work.
The long arm of the law reached out from Orlando last month, fingering two malfeasant St. Johns County autopsy physicians whose attempted coverup of the September 2, 2010 shooting of Michelle O'Connell with the service weapon of St. Johns County Sheriff's Deputy JEREMY BANKS.
Routinely affirming the finding of its Probable Cause Panel, the Florida Medical Examiners Board voted to punish two physicians for lawbreaking related to the O'Connell case. Dr. FREDERICK HOBIN, M.D. was proposed to be suspended for six months and Dr. PREDRAG BULIC, M.D. was proposed to be put on probation for a year.
Each will be served with a formal written complaint, probably by the end of March.
Each has the right to a hearing on disputed facts before an independent Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) of the Florida Department of Administrative Hearings (DOAH).
The DOAH ALJ may hear additional evidence and will make findings of fact and conclusions of law, in a Recommended Decision and Order, which would be heard by the Commission in May. Penalties could even be greater based upon new evidence.
Dr. BULIC attended the February 24, 2017 meeting but Dr. HOBIN stayed home. Dr. BULIC did not speak.
In May, the Commission will also consider whether BULIC should be reappointed for another three years. On February 23rd, I suggested the Medical Examiners Commission meet in St. Augustine City Hall in our City Commission chambers, a/k/a the Alcazar Room. The public has the right to speak up to five minutes on agenda items at Medical Examiners Commission meetings.
The Medical Examiner is an independent district that receives local funds and uses our building and our County Attorney to run interference. It is neither a state nor local agency, but an independent district, which is overseen by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission.
Of course, "law and justice are like distant cousins, sometimes not even on speaking terms."
--- Marlon Brando as a South African attorney under Apartheid, in the movie, A Dry White Season.
To those of us in the "reality-based community," February 24, 2017 came as a relief. To others, like St Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, it was a shock. Our Florida Medical Examiners Commission voted to do the right thing. Despite pressures that destroyed evidence, destroyed careers and are destroying our democracy, the system has begun to work in the case of Michelle O'Connell. In my younger years as an attorney for the downtrodden, I was honored to litigate whistleblower cases against retaliatory employers willing to say and do anything. I saw powerful sociopaths and their environmental and personal devastation and carnage firsthand -- careers destroyed (eventually including my own).
Yet the experience of watching Sheriff DAVID SHOAR here in St. Johns County has no equal. He is unique. History is catching up with him, for as Robert Kennedy said in South Africa on the Day of Affirmation in 1966, "each time a [person] stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, [s]he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples can form a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
As Carl Sagan told our American Bar Association 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights observation in Atlanta in 1991, the legal method and scientific method are similar, with the chance for "successive approximations at the truth." While the findings of the Hearing Panel reflect a compromise, it's not over yet. There's more to come on the O'Connell case. The doctors' trial will reveal more truth (if they request one). Dr. PREDRAG BULIC's reappointment would appear unlikely in light of his allowing public access to bare naked autopsy pictures of Michelle O'Connell in violation of the Dale Earnhardt law.
Sheriff SHOAR is an angry sociopath, angry that We, the People are questioning him.
SHOAR can go pound sand on one of our lovely Atlantic Ocean beaches.
For as Carl Sagan wrote, "If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.”
And no, Sheriff SHOAR, we don't believe that guns recoil forward, we don't believe your self-investigation ukase that Michelle O'Connell committed suicide, and we don't believe YOU.
SHOAR had his name legally changed from "HOAR" in 1994 and was elected Sheriff in 2004.
HOAR's henchmen closed our universal primary to get himself re-elected with $250,000 in tainted money.
You have no respect for democracy, HOAR.
You have no respect for law and order.
You attacked a grieving family in a 5:24 AM press release in which you accused them of "molesting" Michelle's body by having a proper autopsy done, finally.
At long last, you have no sense of decency, sir, in the immortal words of attorney Joseph N. Welch to Senator JOSEPH McCARTHY (R-Wisc).:
You are disgrace in the eyes of St. Johns County, our Nation and our planet.
Waiting for the FBI to knock on your door, HOAR?
Thinking of resigning, like President RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON?
Thinking of escaping to a country without an extradition treaty, perhaps, or changing your surname back to "HOAR?"
Herewith, my three-mails to the Commission, first before and then after its vote, and three local news stories, each flawed but a "first rough draft of history."
-----Original Message----- From: Ed Slavin Sent: Wed, Feb 22, 2017 11:11 am Subject: Three Complaints Against Dr. Predrag Bulic, M.D. and Dr. Frederick Hobin, M.D. before Florida Medical Examiners Commission
Dear Dr. Nelson and colleague Commissioners of the Florida Medical Examiners Commission:
Please overrule the inadequate recommended remedies for the coverup of the murder of Michelle O'Connell by Respondents Dr. Predrag Bulic, M.D. and Dr. Frederick Hobin, M.D. This case requires more than a mere "reprimand" or a "suspension," respectively, because:
1. Michelle O'Connell's jaw was broken. This irrefragable fact shows she was murdered, as concluded by an independent autopsy in 2016 by Dr. William Anderson, M.D. of Orlando. The "suicide" theory is not worthy of belief. Failing to state in the autopsy report that Michelle's jaw was broken is a deviation from the standard of care. It helped cover up a murder. The panel failed to acknowledge Dr. Anderson's finding of homicide. Why? The panel's report is "junk science"; it does not meet the Frye standard for scientific evidence.
2. Respondents violated our Florida Constitution, Article I, Section 24 (adopted by vote of 83% of Florida voters -- 3.8 million people). Respondents violated F.S. 119. Respondents violated their Hippocratic Oath to "do no harm." Respondent Dr. Frederick Hobin and an investigator both kept at home and did not file public records and an amended autopsy report concluding homicide. This was a possible crime, and appears to have violated F.S. 839.13, to wit:
839.13 Falsifying records.—
(1) Except as provided in subsection (2), if any judge, justice, mayor, alderman, clerk, sheriff, coroner, or other public officer, or employee or agent of or contractor with a public agency, or any person whatsoever, shall steal, embezzle, alter, corruptly withdraw, falsify or avoid any record,process, charter, gift, grant, conveyance, or contract, or any paper filed in any judicial proceeding in any court of this state, or shall knowingly and willfully take off, discharge or conceal any issue, forfeited recognizance, or other forfeiture, or other paper above mentioned, or shall forge, deface, or falsify any document or instrument recorded, or filed in any court, or any registry, acknowledgment, or certificate, or shall fraudulently alter, deface, or falsify any minutes, documents, books, or any proceedings whatever of or belonging to any public office within this state; or if any person shall cause or procure any of the offenses aforesaid to be committed, or be in anywise concerned therein, the person so offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
3. Respondents' overt acts aided and abetted a criminal coverup by controversial St. Johns County Sheriff David B. Shoar, a politically influential politician who, with one of his staff members (former St. Augustine City Manager William Barry Harris) and Shoar's close ally (St. Augustine Police Chief Robert Hardwick comprise three (3) of nineteen (19) members of the Governor-appointed member of the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission.
5. Investigator Clu Wright warned Respondent Dr. Predrag Bulic, M.D. that the naked autopsy photos of Michelle O'Connell were being illegaly kept in the public file, violating F.S. 406.136 (Dale Earnahrd Law, enacted in 2001). Mr. Wright warned Respondent Dr. Predrag Bulic to remove the naked autopsy photos in the public file. Only one month later, the naked autopsy photos of Michelle O'Connell were in the public file. I saw the naked autopsy photos with my own eyes, accompanying Mr. Wright and his sister -- Dr. Bulic's office provided the file for inspection by the three of us in the public lobby of the Medical Examiner. This flagrant, willful, knowing violation of the Dale Earnhardt Law requires more than a mere reprimand. Please refer this crime to the Governor for appointment of a special prosecutor of Respondent Bulic's third degree felony:
406.135 Autopsies; confidentiality of photographs and video and audio recordings; exemption.—
(1) For the purpose of this section, the term “medical examiner” means any district medical examiner, associate medical examiner, or substitute medical examiner acting pursuant to this chapter, as well as any employee, deputy, or agent of a medical examiner or any other person who may obtain possession of a photograph or audio or video recording of an autopsy in the course of assisting a medical examiner in the performance of his or her official duties.
(2) A photograph or video or audio recording of an autopsy held by a medical examiner is confidential and exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution, except that a surviving spouse may view and copy a photograph or video recording or listen to or copy an audio recording of the deceased spouse’s autopsy. If there is no surviving spouse, then the surviving parents shall have access to such records. If there is no surviving spouse or parent, then an adult child shall have access to such records.
(3)(a) The deceased’s surviving relative, with whom authority rests to obtain such records, may designate in writing an agent to obtain such records.
(b) A local governmental entity, or a state or federal agency, in furtherance of its official duties, pursuant to a written request, may view or copy a photograph or video recording or may listen to or copy an audio recording of an autopsy, and unless otherwise required in the performance of their duties, the identity of the deceased shall remain confidential and exempt.
(c) The custodian of the record, or his or her designee, may not permit any other person, except an agent designated in writing by the deceased’s surviving relative with whom authority rests to obtain such records, to view or copy such photograph or video recording or listen to or copy an audio recording without a court order.
(4)(a) The court, upon a showing of good cause, may issue an order authorizing any person to view or copy a photograph or video recording of an autopsy or to listen to or copy an audio recording of an autopsy and may prescribe any restrictions or stipulations that the court deems appropriate.
(b) In determining good cause, the court shall consider whether such disclosure is necessary for the public evaluation of governmental performance; the seriousness of the intrusion into the family’s right to privacy and whether such disclosure is the least intrusive means available; and the availability of similar information in other public records, regardless of form.
(c) In all cases, the viewing, copying, listening to or other handling of a photograph or video or audio recording of an autopsy must be under the direct supervision of the custodian of the record or his or her designee.
(5) A surviving spouse shall be given reasonable notice of a petition filed with the court to view or copy a photograph or video recording of an autopsy or a petition to listen to or copy an audio recording, a copy of such petition, and reasonable notice of the opportunity to be present and heard at any hearing on the matter. If there is no surviving spouse, then such notice must be given to the parents of the deceased, and if the deceased has no living parent, then to the adult children of the deceased.
(6)(a) Any custodian of a photograph or video or audio recording of an autopsy who willfully and knowingly violates this section commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
(b) Any person who willfully and knowingly violates a court order issued pursuant to this section commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
(7) A criminal or administrative proceeding is exempt from this section, but unless otherwise exempted, is subject to all other provisions of chapter 119, provided however that this section does not prohibit a court in a criminal or administrative proceeding upon good cause shown from restricting or otherwise controlling the disclosure of an autopsy, crime scene, or similar photograph or video or audio recordings in the manner prescribed herein.
(8) This exemption shall be given retroactive application.
History.—s. 1, ch. 2001-1; s. 1, ch. 2003-184; s. 1, ch. 2006-263..
6. The Sheriff's materially false and misleading statements about "suicide" show scienter and were rubber-stamped by Respondents Bulic and Hobin. Respondents' false and misleading findings were "junk science" intended to clear one of Shoar's deputies, JEREMY BANKS, of homicide. The "suicide" theory is not worthy of belief. Refusal and failure to interview Michelle's friends, family, employers and co-workers in a psychological autopsy breached the standard of care. It aided and abetted a coverup of a murder.
7. County Attorney Patrick Francis McCormack "took several months" to "provide all the requested documents," and "not all the requested documents and photographs," dragging his heels and demanding statutory citations. Please subpoena to the hearing Mr. McCormack to testify at the hearing relating to this obstruction of justice. There is no attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine protection for government attorneys.
8. Michelle O'Connell's rights were violated, as were the rights of her family and the people of the State of Florida to the "honest services" of Dr. Predrag Bulic, M.D. and Dr. Frederick Hobin, M.D. Suggesting a mere "reprimand" and "suspension," respectively is contrary to the facts and the evidence.
9. Please enhance the recommended penalties or remand this case back to staff and the probable cause panel to comply with the standard of evidence set forth in the Frye test -- otherwise this is "junk science" that is part of a continuing coverup.
10. Please allow ample time for Board members and citizens to question Respondents and other witnesses at the February 24, 2017 hearing in Orlando.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
Sent: Thu, Feb 23, 2017 5:32 pm
Subject: Suggested Venue for May 2017 meeting of Florida Medical Examiners Commission in the Alcazar Room, 75 King Street, St. Augustine, Florida
Dear Dr. Nelson, Commissioners and staff:
1. Will you please consider holding the May 2017 meeting of the Florida Medical Examiners Commission here in St. Augustine, as it will consider the reappointment of our controversial local Medical Examiner Dr. Predrag Bulic, M.D.? 2. Our St. Augustine City Commission chambers -- known as the Alcazar Room -- is located on the first floor of the Lightner Museum and City Hall, at 75 King Street, across the street from the Casa Monica Hotel, in the center of our historic downtown. The Alcazar Room was recently refurbished due to flood damage from Hurricane Matthew. The historic 1888 former hotel building is in the center of the historic area of Our Nation's Oldest City.
3. The Alcazar Room may be reserved in advance by contacting St. Augustine City Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E., 904-669-1873; 904-825-1006, and his assistant, Ms. Lucy Fountain.
4. There is no charge for State of Florida agencies to hold meetings in the Alcazar Room.
5. The Alcazar Room is set up not unlike any modern courtroom, with a wooden bar and gate separating the large Commissioners' table from the audience. The Alcazar Room has very good security, a private anteroom for private Commissioner and staff breaks, and a table for staff members making presentations. The ADA-compatible Alcazar Room is equipped with sophisticated microphones, speakers, television and computer equipment, WiFi, and blessed with friendly staff who can assist the Commission.
6. Here are some photos of the Alcazar Room and the Lightner Museum and City Hall:
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
Sent: Fri, Feb 24, 2017 2:02 pm
Subject: Re: Three Complaints Against Dr. Predrag Bulic, M.D. and Dr. Frederick Hobin, M.D. before Florida Medical Examiners Commission
Dear Dr. Nelson and colleague Commissioners of the Florida Medical Examiners Commission:
1. I would like to commend you (and your FDLE staff) for your work on these two cases, decided today in Orlando.
2. Thank you for doing your jobs without fear or favor. We here are proud of your public service.
3. I do hope to meet y'all at your May 2017 meeting, hopefully to be held here in St. Augustine.
State panel proposes disciplinary action for 2 medical examiners involved in O’Connell case
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Dr. Predrag Bulic
Michelle O’Connell
The state’s Medical Examiners Commission has recommended disciplinary actions for two local medical examiners who were involved in the investigation into the 2010 death of Michelle O’Connell.
At their Feb. 24 meeting, the commission voted to file administrative complaints against District 23 Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Predrag Bulic, and associate medical examiner Dr. Frederick Hobin, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Jessica Cary.
The vote came after a Feb. 7 panel found probable cause that both men violated Florida statutes and “practice guidelines” in their handling — and their office’s handling — of documents associated with the O’Connell case.
The panel’s findings are listed in a Feb. 16 memo that was forwarded to the commission for their vote. The memo’s existence was first reported by The Record’s news partner First Coast News on Monday night.
O’Connell died of a gunshot wound through her mouth on Sept. 2, 2010, in the home of her boyfriend Jeremy Banks, who was, and still is, a St. Johns County sheriff’s deputy. The gun that fired the fatal shot was Banks’ service weapon.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office led the initial investigation and the death was eventually ruled a suicide by the local medical examiner’s office, but members of O’Connell’s family have said she wouldn’t have killed herself, and some have questioned the integrity of the original investigation and believe Banks is responsible, though he has denied any wrongdoing.
The death became the subject a high-profile New York Times story in 2013 and a related piece from PBS “Frontline” that raised questions about the original investigation as well as the Sheriff’s Office and Medical Examiner’s Office handling of the case.
Two governor-appointed special prosecutors have found that there is not enough evidence to suggest that a homicide occurred.
Members of the O’Connell family, though, have remained steadfast in their belief that their loved one was killed, even going so far as having a private exhumation carried out in January 2016.
Findings from the exhumation and subsequent autopsy weren’t released until May, when the nationally syndicated television show “Crime Watch Daily” revealed that an independent pathologist had found a fracture in O’Connell’s lower jaw.
Some speculated that could be evidence that O’Connell had been battered prior to the fatal shot being fired and noted that the fracture was left out of the initial autopsy report.
That omission was addressed in the panel’s memo and was among seven possible violations of statutes or guidelines that panel members investigated.
While the fracture was not listed in the autopsy report, it was “obvious in the X-ray taken during the autopsy,” the memo says.
“The Panel determined that the image of the fracture constituted documentation, but that it should have been noted in the autopsy report, and that the failure to do so was poor record keeping,” it says. “However, the Panel felt that this did not rise to the level of negligence.”
According to the memo, the panel convened after receiving a formal complaint against Bulic and Hobin from private investigator Clu Wright, as well as follow-up complaints from Michelle O’Connell’s sister Jennifer Crites and her mother Patty O’Connell.
Wright, who has served as a spokesman and investigator for the family, alleged in his complaint that Hobin, who did the original autopsy, failed to perform an appropriate review of the medical information presented at the time of Michelle O’Connell’s death and that he conducted an incomplete investigation into the cause and manner of death.
Wright also alleged that Bulic allowed him to view the autopsy photos when he was not the next of kin and had not secured permission from the legal next of kin to review the photos.
Crites’ and Patty O’Connell’s complaints echo that allegation, according to the memo, as well as the allegation that Hobin did not document the broken jaw.
They also claimed that Hobin and Medical Examiner’s Office Investigator Kent Holloway kept records and files related to the investigation in their homes and that the files in Hobin’s possession had not been incorporated into the original case file.
Ultimately, the panel found that Hobin violated statute and guidelines “because he maintained part of his investigative findings, amended autopsy findings, and amended death certificate at his home.”
Hobin also violated guidelines, the memo says, by “failure to have complete notes and the investigative report in the files maintained within the medical examiner’s office.”
The panel also found that Bulic violated statute and guidelines by “failing to have a clear policy in place to dissuade such activity, and his apparent unawareness that the file for Michelle O’Connell’s death investigation housed in the medical examiner’s office was incomplete.”
Bulic also violated Florida statute “by allowing a staff member to provide autopsy photographs to a person who was not the legal next of kin, and did not have the permission of the legal next of kin to view the autopsy photographs.”
Cary said the votes for the administrative complaints also came with proposed disciplinary actions.
For Hobin — who Cary said is a part-time associate examiner serving District 23 and District 8 — the panel proposed a 6-month suspension.
Bulic could be facing a 1-year probation which could terminate early upon enacting policies that address the shortfalls listed in the memo.
Both men have 21 days to review the findings and respond, Cary said.
The memo also noted that the office of St. Johns County attorney Patrick McCormack was slow to respond to requests for documents related to the case and at one point “required staff to provide statutory authority before providing other necessary documents and photographs.”
McCormack told The Record on Tuesday that that was not an accurate depiction of how his office responded to the panel’s requests, saying that he and his staff were “meticulous” in their response.
“We are very comfortable with the timeline,” he said “We did not delay whatsoever.”
He was also comfortable with having pushed back on the state’s panel by asking them to provide statutory authority.
“The bottom line is that some of the information is confidential,” he said of the autopsy report. “And we don’t care who is asking, we wanted to make sure that we have the authority to provide it.”
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Historic City News
Panel finds O’Connell medical examiners broke state laws
During the Medical Examiners Commission Meeting at the Buena Vista Suites on February 24, 2017, Historic City News learned that two District 23 medical examiners would be recommended for suspension or probation for their actions in handling the autopsy of Michelle O’Connell.
A three-member District 23 Probable Cause Panel compiled its findings in a February 16, 2017 memorandum to Florida Medical Examiners Commission Chairman, Stephen J. Nelson, M.A., M.D., F.C.A.P.
During Issue 6 of the published Agenda, the four-page memorandum was presented by Barbara C. Wolf, MD, who is a medical examiner, on behalf of the panel; which included Wolf as well as Kenneth T. Jones and Wesley H. Heidt, J.D.
On February 27, 2017, local Historic City News reporters requested the Commission and Florida Department of Law Enforcement Office of Public Information to turn over the documents containing the complaint and outcome of the panel’s investigation.
Dr. Frederick Hobin, who was the Associate Medical Examiner at the time and performed the initial autopsy, was found negligent and to have committed several violations of Practice Guidelines, as was current Medical Examiner, Dr. Predrag Bulic.
The complaint says Hobin failed to perform an appropriate review of the medical information and conducted an incomplete investigation.
Hobin is accused of not reporting that the victim had a broken jawbone at the time of her death; a fact that was discovered by the O’Connell family during a subsequent, privately paid forensic autopsy.
Also, Hobin kept important case documentation at his home, including an amended death certificate that was never officially filed with the case, all of which are violations of state law.
“I became convinced it was probably a homicide,” Hobin said in a televised interview with First Coast News. Hobin initially ruled O’Connell’s death a suicide but later changed his mind. He admitted to altering the autopsy report and stated that he changed the original death certificate, which he kept at his home, along with other parts of his investigative findings – all direct violations of state law.
Bulic is the medical examiner who was unable to remove the same model pistol used in the shooting from a retention holster like the one on the gun belt of O’Connell’s boyfriend — St Johns County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeremy Banks. He is also the inventor of the theory that O’Connell held Bank’s pistol, in her left hand even though she was right-handed, upside-down, and that the pistol recoiled forward instead of backwards, causing the cut over her right eye.
The panel also found that Dr Bulic violated state law by sharing autopsy photographs of O’Connell without the family’s consent.
Members of the O’Connell family told Historic City News that they are more convinced than ever that St Johns County Sheriff David B Shoar is providing cover for the man who murdered Michelle. Shoar has also hired Banks’ stepfather, Larry Dixon, who retired from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Michelle O’Connell’s mother, Patty, said that she will continue to pursue justice for her daughter and that she will not give up her fight until the truth comes out.
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Michelle O'Connell's family files complaint against medical examiners, says they were negligent
Documents recently obtained by First Coast News filed with the Florida Medical Examiners Commission claim the investigation into Michelle O'Connell's death was flawed.
The formal complaint was filed by a private investigator hired by O'Connell's family, and the family themselves, against Medical Examiner Dr. Predrag Bulic and Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Frederick Hobin.
The complaint says Hobin failed to perform an appropriate review of the medical information at the time and conducted an incomplete investigation.
Hobin is accused of not reporting that O'Connell had a broken jawbone when she died and that Hobin kept important case documentation at his home. Those documents included an amended death certificate that was never officially filed with the case, all of which are violations of state law.
Hobin initially ruled O'Connell's death a suicide but later changed his mind.
"I became convinced it was probably a homicide," Hobin said. He also documented them in a revised autopsy report stating he changed the original death certificate.
The complaint says Hobin kept the altered death certificate at his home, along with other parts of his investigative findings - all direct violations of state law.
The complaint also alleges Bulic showed O'Connell's autopsy pictures to non-family members without consent from O'Connell's family, also a violation of state law.
The State Attorney's Office believes O'Connell killed herself, and two other medical examiners agree but a Florida Department of Law Enforcement review disagreed.
O'connell's family has always believed her boyfriend, St. Johns County Sheriff's deputy, Jeremy Banks, the person who called 911 to report O'Connell's death, pulled the trigger. Banks has maintained his innocence from the beginning and is still employed by the sheriff's office.
The Florida Medical Examiners Commission found Bulic's actions to be negligent, and recommend he be written up for the infraction. The commission also found Hobin to be negligent and suggested he be suspended for an unspecified amount of time.
We are working to get comment from the O'Connell family about the complaints. We will update this story when we hear back.
I hope I am not the only member of the public still carrying their outrage over Michelle's death.
What happened to her is disgraceful.
The way the investigation was conducted, particularly the rapid arrival of multiple police, suggests that others may have been complicit before/after the fact.
Best wishes to Michele's family. They have had to relive the experience so may times due to Shoar and his team of miscreants.
