Celebrity Coroner Accused of Trading Cadavers

Jan. 29, 2008 — -- In television coverage of high-profile trials such as the O.J. Simpson and Scott Peterson cases and celebrity deaths from Heath Ledger and Anna Nicole Smith's son to Jon Benet Ramsey and Chandra Levy, he's a ubiquitous presence.

Cyril H. Wecht, one of the country's most prominent pathologists, is used to testifying in hundreds of trials, expounding on the gritty details of autopsies and causes of death.

But in his latest day in court, the affable 76-year-old doctor finds himself on trial for the second time in his life, facing 41 criminal counts that could put him in jail for more than 20 years.

Wecht, a former Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, commissioner, is accused of using his government employees to walk his dog, buy nose plugs for his swimming exercise, chauffeur him to Pittsburgh Steelers games and help perform autopsies for his private business. The extra tasks were called "Wecht details" by his staff.

Wecht, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, finds his lucrative career and his reputation on the line.

No one from his legal team would comment on the case.

Wecht rose to prominence as a consultant in high-profile cases such as the Robert F. Kennedy assassination in 1968, the Sharon Tate murders and the Symbionese Liberation Army deaths in 1974 and for writing a book on Jon Benet Ramsey, in which he argued that her death was accidental. He is most famous for disputing the single-bullet theory in the assassination of President Kennedy.

In one of the trial's more bizarre moments, Ed Strimlan, chief investigator for the medical examiner's office who worked under Wecht, described how he was once told to buy hot dogs with his own money and deliver them in the coroner's office van to a political event for Wecht's son David Wecht, who was running for prothonotary.

While earning $60,000 from the county and only performing a "handful" of autopsies, Wecht made millions by getting his staff to help perform 300 private autopsies, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Stallings in his opening statements in federal court in Pittsburgh, Monday morning.