El Paso Fires County's Medical Examiner

Dr. Paul Shrode's inflated resume already had him in hot water.  His work in an Ohio death penalty case was the tipping point.

The El Paso Times reports, "County fires Chief Medical Examiner Paul Shrode: Ohio Parole Board's ruling spurs decision."  It's written by Marty Schladen.

A majority of the County Commissioners Court stuck by Chief Medical Examiner Paul Shrode through three conflicting résumés and more than two years of questions about his credibility. All that changed Monday when court members fired Shrode on a 3-1 vote.

They acted after the Ohio Parole Board voted 4-3 last week to recommend clemency for a death-row inmate, citing problems with testimony Shrode gave against him in 1997.

County Judge Anthony Cobos and Commissioners Anna Perez and Veronica Escobar voted to dismiss Shrode immediately. Commissioner Dan Haggerty voted to keep him on the job. Commissioner Willie Gandara was absent on county business.

Now the commissioners must begin the search for another medical examiner.

District Attorney Jaime Esparza also is reviewing cases involving Shrode to see if convicts are likely to challenge his testimony.

"I don't think we'll see a rush to review his cases," Esparza said.

But Shrode probably is not done testifying in El Paso County courts. Defendants could call him in cases in which Shrode produced autopsy reports, Esparza said.

If Shrode testifies, taxpayers will be on the hook to pay his time and expenses, Esparza said.

He declined to say whether he still had confidence in Shrode. Esparza had publicly supported Shrode when his credentials were questioned in prior public meetings before the commissioners court.

And:

His troubles in El Paso began in August 2007, when Assistant County Attorney Bruce Yetter called Shrode to testify in a child protection case. Yetter introduced Shrode's résumé as a court exhibit. One entry on the résumé Shrode prepared said he had a "graduate law degree" from Southwest Texas State University.

Attorney Theresa Caballero cross-examined Shrode. She remembered that Southwest Texas State had no law school, so she asked: "Do you have a law degree, doctor?"

"Not in the sense of a law degree from a school of law, not like you," Shrode said.

He then admitted under oath that he had no law degree or diploma.

But in the résumés Shrode had submitted to El Paso and Harris counties, he claimed to hold a "graduate degree in law."

Later, after being questioned by Caballero, Shrode produced another résumé. That one said that he had a degree in law from a school of political science and that he was a member of the State Bar of Texas from 1979 to 1983. A third résumé by Shrode said that he had a "degree in law ... not a law degree" and that his bar membership was as a paralegal.

The State Bar of Texas had no record of Shrode being a member, either as an attorney or a paralegal.

The article notes that Shrode was the county's highest paid employee at at more than $254,000 a year. 

"Embattled El Paso county medical examiner fired," is the title of Alicia Caldwell's AP report, via the Dallas Morning News.

El Paso County's medical examiner was fired Monday following years of questions about his resume and qualifications.

Dr. Paul Shrode, who testified in an Ohio capital murder case where officials are now recommending the death sentence be overturned, was released from his job after a 3-1 vote by county commissioners, said commissioner Veronica Escobar.

Questions about Shrode's qualifications have swirled since he acknowledged in 2007 that he lied on his resume about having a law degree. Last year, the county was notified that Shrode was no longer eligible to become board certified in pathology, despite his claims of having received the certification years earlier, Escobar said.

And:

Defense lawyers in Ohio challenged his testimony in a 13-year-old capital murder case, which prompted the Ohio Parole Board to recommend that Richard Nields' death sentence be overturned. He is scheduled for execution June 10.

The Ohio board, which ruled 4-3 in favor of recommending that Gov. Ted Strickland convert the death sentence to one of life without the possibility of parole, questioned the validity of medical testimony from Shrode during Nields' 1997 trial.

Shrode, who was training in a medical fellowship at the time, testified that bruising on the victim's neck showed that he beat the woman before strangling her 15 minutes later. A deputy coroner who oversaw Shrode's work at the time told the parole board that science didn't support that conclusion.

Lawyers for a Texas man scheduled to be executed July 1 told the El Paso Times they are also reviewing the Ohio case and plan to challenge Shrode's testimony against Michael James Perry, who was convicted of killing a woman in Montgomery County, north of Houston.

The Courier of Montgomery County reports, "El Paso ME’s firing could impact Perry execution," by Nancy Flake.

The firing of the El Paso County medical examiner Monday for falsifying his resume could impact the appeal for a Montgomery County man scheduled to die by lethal injection July 1.

El Paso County commissioners fired Dr. Paul Shrode in a 3-1 vote during their regular meeting Monday, a county official said. Shrode, who has been the medical examiner there since 2005, testified in the 2003 capital murder trial for Michael James “Romeo” Perry.

Perry was convicted for the October 2001 shooting death of Sandra Stotler, 50, a nurse at Conroe Regional Medical Center. Jason Burkett, an accomplice who was convicted in the murder of Stotler, her 16-year-old son Adam Stotler and his friend, Jeremy Richardson, received a life sentence.

And:

Attorneys for Perry did not return calls seeking comment Monday afternoon, but have previously told The Courier they are “examining options” for an appeal.

Earlier coverage from El Paso is in this post; more on the Ohio case, here.  Related posts are in the forensics index, including:

• Autopsy Errors One More Troubling Trend
• Yamil Berard's Five-Part Medical Examiner Series Concludes
• Yamil Berard on Texas Autopsy Controversies
• The Case of Cynthia Case - More Bad Forensics