Patricia Moore: A Continuing Forensics Scandal in Texas

Radley Balko | September 15, 2009

In the late 1990s, Harris County, Texas, medical examiner Patricia Moore was repeatedly reprimanded by her superiors for pro-prosecution bias. Yet she was still able to keep her position doing official autopsies for the county until 2002. In 2004, a statistical analysis showed Moore diagnosed shaken baby syndrome (already a controversial diagnosis) in infant deaths at a rate several times higher than the national average. Roger Koppl and I noted her case in recommending statistical analysis as one way of checking the integrity of state forensic specialists.

One woman convicted of killing her own child because of Moore's testimony was freed in 2005 after serving six years in prison. Another woman was cleared in 2004 after being accused because of Moore's autopsy results. In 2001, babysitter Trenda Kemmerer was sentenced to 55 years in prison after being convicted of shaking a baby to death based largely on Moore's testimony. The prosecutor in that case told the Houston Chronicle in 2004 that she had "no concerns" about Moore's work. Even though Moore's diagnosis in that case has since been revised to "undetermined," and Moore was again reprimanded for her lack of objectivity in the case, Kemmerer remains in prison.

Now another innocence claim has been filed in a case where Moore diagnosed shaken baby syndrome. According to the Chronicle, the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office has "quietly rewritten" the results of a 1998 autopsy performed by Moore that was used to convict a nurse of killing a child in her care. The revision downgraded Moore's homicide conclusion to an "undetermined" cause of death. So far, the prosecutors in that case are standing by their conviction.

According to the Chronicle, Moore today works for a private firm that performs official autopsies for six Texas counties.

Comments

|9.15.09 @ 10:16AM|#

Radley, I hope you get many weeks of vacation. You deserve it for your good work...and we need a break for the same reason.

Brett|9.15.09 @ 10:29AM|#

What is the motivation of the these medical examiners who repeatedly flaunt objectivity and the law? I don't see what they stand to gain.

Is it the same reason bullies are attracted to police work?

Liberty Gal|9.15.09 @ 11:07AM|#

Now another innocence claim has been filed in a case where Moore diagnosed shaken baby syndrome. According to the Chronicle, the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office has "quietly rewritten" the results of a 1998 autopsy performed by Moore that was used to convict a nurse of killing a child in her care.

A few hours before babysitter found the baby blue in her crib, she had received three vaccinations. Another issue going back to special interests and big government. If it weren't for the profits of the pharmaceutical cos. pushing for forced vaccinations, that baby would be alive and the nurse free.

|9.15.09 @ 11:21AM|#

Oh, yes, it's not this incompetent, lying medical examiner who's the problem... it's Big Pharma!

Let's not get into the whole "vaccinations are a conspiracy to poison us all!" bullshit. If you've got evidence to back that up (and you don't, because "a smattering of unverified anecdotes" isn't the same thing), post it. If not, kindly STFU.

|9.15.09 @ 12:49PM|#

IG Farben is running the world! No really, that's what a troofer told me last Friday night. Seriously. There is no IG Farben anymore, but that doesn't stop his rantings. It's all about the vaccinations he says. That all the big pharma today have roots in IG Farben. There are black trucks delivering vaccines to key distribution points.

|9.15.09 @ 1:01PM|#

"""The revision downgraded Moore's homicide conclusion to an "undetermined" cause of death. So far, the prosecutors in that case are standing by their conviction."""

The really sad thing about this is that in order to get a new trial or to have your trial overturned, you need evidence to prove your innocents. Showing the government's evidence no longer holds up in not evidence of your innocents.

We'll see what SCOTUS says about it this term. If 7 of the 9 witnesses against you recant, and that's doesn't get you a new trial, what will. And what will be their rational.

|9.15.09 @ 3:43PM|#

"the profits of the pharmaceutical cos. pushing for forced vaccinations"

oh please, we have shortages of vaccines because companies are trying to get OUT of the vaccination business, it's no longer profitable, at least not the school age and flu vaccines. We went from 25 makers in 1990 to 5, too much red tape plus price controls (when governments buy huge amounts for everyone that's a price control), plus a ridiculous amount of lawsuits, tend to drive businesses away.