(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records has ruled in favor of Headline USA’s appeal for the autopsy records of alleged Trump shooter Thomas Crooks—determining that Butler County must disclose such records pursuant to the state’s Coroner’s Act.
“The County is required to provide autopsy reports, toxicology reports, inquisition or coroner’s reports, and any other ‘reports or documents’ which are made expressly public by 16 Pa.C.S. § 13952 upon the payment of the fees set forth in the Coroner’s Act,” Pennsylvania Senior Appeals Officer Jordan Davis wrote in his Thursday decision.
“The County is required to provide any responsive reports … within 30 days upon payment of the Coroner’s Act’s authorized fees.”
🚨 We have won our appeal for the autopsy records of would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks!🚨
The Butler Coroner must provide the records within 30 days of receiving our payment for fees! We've sent payment.
Here's part of the decision. Read our article for all the details! pic.twitter.com/PpIjcUuEsn
— Headline USA (@HeadlineUSA) September 12, 2024
Headline USA has sent payment to the Butler County Coroner Office, and is awaiting a response.
Appeals Officer Davis’s decision was also in favor of disclosing records that document the chain of custody of Crooks’s body from the crime scene to the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner. As has been previously reported, Crooks’s body was reportedly kept on the rooftop until 6 a.m. the day after the shooting. There, Butler County coroner William F. Young III allegedly examined Crooks’s body before sending him to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner for the autopsy.
Coroner Young had claimed in a sworn statement indicating that no records exist about Young being sent to Allegheny. Appeals Officer Davis accepted Young’s sworn statement that no records exist about the decision, but Davis said there could be other records about the transportation.
“The County has provided no evidence that it does not possess any record of the transportation, merely that the County Coroner’s office does not possess any internal communications related to the matter. Because the County has not met its burden to show that these records do not exist, it must conduct a search for such responsive records,” Davis said.
“If the agency completes its search for records responsive to the Request and determines that no records exist, it must provide the Requester with an attestation explaining the search and affirming that no additional responsive records exist within its possession, custody or control,” Davis said.
That OOR’s ruling doesn’t necessarily close the matter, however. Butler County has the right to appeal the OOR’s decision to the Butler County Court of Common Pleas within 30 days of today.
Appeals Officer Davis also didn’t give this publication a total victory. He said other records requested by Headline USA don’t fall under the Coroner’s Act, such as scene images, exam images, lab analysis reports, and histology slide recuts.
“Histological slides are tissues from the decedent which have been prepared for microscope study—a ‘histology slide recut’ refers to new tissue samples which have been prepared from the same site as the original. Although there is no specific reference to histology slides in the RTKL, they are facially the record of an autopsy,” Davis explained.
“Moreover, requiring the agency to scan and provide images of a tissue slide would certainly constitute photographs “of the body or any portion of the body” and therefore be expressly exempt under Section 708(b)(20) of the RTKL. Because histology slides appear to be subject to that exemption and not subject to the Coroner’s Act, the appeal must be denied as to any such slides.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
