Hillsborough County Medical Examiner - Dr. Vern Adams

Although you’d say the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner isn’t quite a lively place, there sure is some thrill when walking in.

The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner looks similar to a hospital lab, except for the part where bodies are laying face down on autopsy tables. But before we get to that, Dr. Vern Adams, Chief Medical Examiner gave a detailed account about what type of documents are held at the office, which aren’t and other details of the lab.

The 1-year-old office, located on N. 46^th street and eerily close to campus, is responsible for autopsies, determining the cause of death, establishing evidence for crime cases, documenting undiagnosed diseases and disposing unclaimed bodies.

HCME has nine forensic investigators performing nearly 1,200 autopsies per year and has the capability to hold 400 bodies on-site.

The office works hand-in-hand with the public, and their request for particular documents; however, some forms are not available. “Everything in a case file is public,” said Dr. Adams, all autopsy reports, external examinations by doctors, transmittal sheets/evidence, correspondence from attorneys and meetings with family are public. Although, if the death is still in an active criminal case, the documents found in the public file will not be made public. HIV test results and records from hospitals and nursing homes are exceptions as well.

A big plus, noted by many students, was the fact that if a person sends in a pre-addressed envelope to HCME with a public records request, HCME will send out all the documents available at no charge. That sure beats 15 cents a page!

HCME also produces death certificates for all of the bodies brought in, yet the medical portion of the certificate is not a public record. The autopsy report is.

Questions regarding photos and videos of death cases were covered by Dr. Adams as well. According to Dr. Adams, the Dale Earnhart Act, an emotional-driven, bad law, gives the next of kin the property right to photos and videos in death cases. Everyone else needs a court order. Thus, autopsy photos are not public, but more importantly, scene photos are.

I learned a great deal about what actually goes on at a medical examiner’s office and why they perform what they do, medically and constitutionally. This field trip, in my opinion, has been the most interesting … how many people can say they walked happily into a dead man’s office.