LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD
Private Autopsy; Restoring The Peace In Ferguson, Missouri; Two Shot In Ferguson Chaos Overnight
Aired August 18, 2014 - 12:00 ET
Excerpt:
I now want to bring in
Dr. Jen Garavaglia from Discovery Health Dr. G Medical Examiner program. She's live in Orlando. And also here with me live in New York, criminal defense attorney Midwin Charles and CNN legal analyst Mark O'Mara.
Dr. G, I'd like to beginning with you, if I can. We've just all been learning at the same time what this independent autopsy from Dr. Michael Baden shows us and perhaps doesn't show us. And from your trained eye, I'd like to get your perspective and your thoughts about what information we now know that we didn't know before from what they've given us.
DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA, MEDICAL EXAMINER IN ORANGE-OSCEOLA, FLORIDA: Ooh, from my trained eye, we don't have very -- still
don't have very much information, and neither does Dr. Baden. We don't have the pictures. I can't analyze
how he's interpreting this wound. He has
not seen the x- rays. He's not seen the clothing. He has not seen - oh, the car. So you really can't even start to try to reconstruct this shooting.
You know, justice takes a long time. The medical examiner's independent and the original one that did the autopsy.
And I would much rather wait for that independent autopsy with pictures that we can evaluate than I would go on a second autopsy, which is probably why they're doing a third autopsy.
BANFIELD: And I just want to be very clear on what Dr. Baden said if his live news conference because so much depends on what happened in that initial struggle. Dr. Baden said there's no forensic evidence to suggest a struggle occurred, but does that also mean there's no forensic evidence to suggest a struggle didn't occur?
GARAVAGLIA: Right.
Most of the time with a struggle, you will see some evidence of close-range firing. But not all the time. And you certainly would need to look at the clothes. You want to make sure that those wounds didn't go through something first that would stop any evidence of close-range firing. And, keep in mind,
the body's already been washed and manipulated by the time Dr. Baden has gotten it.
BANFIELD: Actually that was another question I had for you. We're talking about a second autopsy. And there is still to be a third for the federal authorities. How much does a body - and I hate to speak in these terms, but it is critical -- how much does a body get compromised each time an investigator like yourself finishes his or her work?
GARAVAGLIA: Right.
The first autopsy is going to be the most critical one to look at, to look at their pictures and to look at the x-ray, because once that -- organs are taken out during the autopsy, it's very difficult to follow the path. The body is washed and then made ready for the funeral. And then Dr. Baden looks at it. So he's got to relook at what the wounds look like originally before he can really make a determination.
If you notice very closely
when they stated that there was a federal autopsy would rely on some of the findings of the first autopsy, that's critical. That's what should be done. These take a long time to sort out.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1408/18/lvab.01.html
BBM
Dr. G made some excellent comments which explains some important points. I highlighted the once which I found the most interesting.
I'm also under the impression that whoever hires an expert like Dr. Baden, that Dr. Baden will then "interpret" his findings in favor of the party who hired him. IMO, certain findings can be interpreted in one way - or the other.
