Attorney: Medical examiner's memory loss was 'frightening'

State attorney accused of hiding ME's memory problems denies allegations

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After allegations were made this week that State Attorney Angela Corey withheld information about the Duval County medical examiner's mental health from defendants' lawyers, one of those lawyers said he believes his client's case in 2010 might have been affected by the doctor's condition.

Dr. Margarita Arruza resigned her position as chief medical examiner in January 2011. Corey said Arruza actually stopped working at the end of October 2010.

A recently published Folio Weekly article reported that there were indications before she resigned that Arruza was suffering from early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

The article said Corey knew about Arruza's memory problems before she resigned and failed to tell defense attorneys.

Corey denied the allegations Wednesday and said that she took action as soon as she found out about Arruza's memory loss issues. She said the article was politically motivated and was planted by former prosecutor Wes White, one of her opponents in the upcoming state attorney race.

According to records from the Medical Examiner's Office, Arruza performed approximately 452 autopsies from Jan. 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2010.

Near the end of that time frame, Arruza was exhibiting memory loss problems, according to former public defender Pat McGuinness.

McGuinness represented Shantell Serrant, who was accused of murder in 2008 in the death of her 18-month-old son, Antoine Hardiman. Serrant said her son's injuries were caused by an accidental fall in his playpen, but the medical examiner ruled the boy's death a homicide.

Serrant eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was placed on probation for two years.

As he was preparing Serrant's case for trial in September 2010, McGuinness deposed Arruza. He said what he learned in the deposition was frightening.

According to the transcript News4Jax obtained, in one exchange about a skull fracture, Arruza was asked where that fracture was located, and she answered, "Well, it looks like it's a skull."

Arruza could not follow the line of questioning during the deposition, seemed confused and at one point said, "I feel like an idiot today."

McGuinness, who had known Arruza for years before the deposition, said he was very concerned for her and for his client.

“I was astounded,” McGuinness said. “I've known her to be a competent professional for quite some number of years. She wasn't at all like that. She didn't understand what was going on in the situation, the deposition, the evidence. It was kind of frightening.”

McGuinness said he suggested the deposition be adjourned.

“I don't think she understood what was going on,” he said.

Corey said she was not aware of any problems with Arruza at the time, and that they would have had no impact on the outcome of Serrant's case.

But McGuinness said he made sure the State Attorney's Office knew then that Arruza appeared to have a problem with her memory.

“I talked to the state attorney involved and told him this is a serious problem and he needed to get with his superiors about this, because Dr. Arruza, in that condition, should not be going to court or conducting autopsies,” McGuinness said. “There were several discussions (about it) in the following weeks.”

Corey commented about Serrant's case after the allegations were lodged against her Wednesday.

“Mr. McGuinness, or whoever else was on this case, pled that defendant guilty to manslaughter, and that person was sentenced,” Corey said. “(There was) no concern about Dr. Arruza and her testimony when the plea of guilty was entered.”

McGuinness said that's just not true.

“It's false. There were grave concerns about Dr. Arruza. I brought them to the attention of the state,” he said. “I brought up the concerns. I hired an independent medical examiner to review it. I spoke many times with the state attorney on the case about it, and he indicated to me he was relaying these concerns to his superiors, including Ms. Corey.”

Corey reiterated to News4Jax on Thursday that she had not been made aware of Arruza’s condition until the following month in another case and that when she learned of the problems she took action immediately.

She asserted again that the allegations against her are political and questioned why the concerns would be coming up six years later during an election.

Serrant told News4Jax on Thursday that she suspected there were problems with Arruza’s report. Her attorney said pleading guilty to manslaughter kept Serrant from facing jail time.

Folio editor says story not planted

Claire Goforth, the editor of Folio Weekly who wrote the story that sparked the controversy said Corey is wrong and no one planted the story.

“I think that's absurd,” Goforth said. “The real story here is the discovery violations by the State Attorney’s Office.”

Goforth said she thinks Corey panicked and tried to cloud the issue by placing blame on Goforth.

“Really the issue is that she did not reveal that the medical examiner was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and that (in) the cases that subsequently went to trial there could have been some cross-examination based on that fact,” Goforth said.

Goforth said she interviewed White twice while preparing the article, but that he did not contact her to prompt her to run the story.


About the Authors:

Jim Piggott is the reporter to count on when it comes to city government and how it will affect the community.