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Ill doctor's undone autopsy reports cause for concern

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 4, 2007

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Dr. Johnny Glenn, the lone forensic pathologist performing autopsies in one of the poorest parts of Alabama, was slipping.

In hundreds and hundreds of cases, he would examine bodies but put aside his notes, never finishing the final reports or filling in the diagrams that are so crucial to death investigations. He was also missing subtle but important clues. At times, he just seemed sad.

But because Glenn worked with virtually no supervision, the extent of the backlog - and exactly what he was going through personally - would not become clear until after he abruptly resigned in 2004.

Documents show Glenn, 64, is afflicted with dementia, severe depression and other ailments.

Now, more than two years after his departure, an untold number of criminal cases have been thrown into jeopardy by Glenn's breakdown, according to interviews with prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Problems are coming to light as his old cases wind their way through Alabama courts one by one.

Glenn's incomplete autopsies have complicated at least three murder trials.

The former family doctor went to work in Alabama as a medical examiner in 1999. Glenn for a time was the only state forensic pathologist performing autopsies in the western third of Alabama, which includes Tuscaloosa, the home of the University of Alabama, but is mostly a poor, rural region.

Glenn was widely considered a good doctor before his problems came to light. To many, he seemed as sharp as ever right up to the end.

But two former colleagues - both speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue - said Glenn's backlog mounted and the quality of his work declined as he became increasingly depressed.

He was battling health problems that included eye infections stemming from cataract surgery, they said.

Compounding Glenn's troubles, they said, was his inability to pass the exam to become certified by the American Board of Pathology - something that is not required to be a pathologist in Alabama, but is highly desirable.

About three months after Glenn quit, his psychiatrist wrote the department to say he was incapacitated by severe depression that required emergency treatment and shock therapy.

He could no longer work or testify in court because of memory loss, and he has since been diagnosed with dementia and other physical and mental problems, records show.

Frances Glenn, Glenn's wife, said her husband cannot answer questions, and she would not comment.

After Glenn left, boxes and boxes of unfinished cases were discovered in his office. "There were several hundred cases unfinished by Dr. Glenn," said Dr. Jim Lauridson, a former state pathologist who was briefly hired to complete some of Glenn's cases.

Michael Sparks, who became director in February of the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, insisted last month that there were no problems with the quality of Glenn's work.

But the incomplete files in Glenn's office have created problems. The office where Glenn once worked no longer performs autopsies, because it was inadequate, Sparks said. Other pathologists are still completing cases he left undone.

[Last modified April 4, 2007, 01:37:15]