Medical Examiner In Pierce County Mishandles Cases: Report

TACOMA, WA - A whistleblower complaint was filed this week calling the Pierce County Medical Examiner "lazy, sloppy, an embarrassment to the county, and someone putting residents at risk," according to multiple news outlets in the region.

Pierce County's Associate Medical Examiner Megan Quinn, the office's second-in-command, reportedly filed the whistleblower complaint with the county's Human Resources Department on Wednesday. Quinn has been with the ME's office since August 2018.

According to KOMO News, the complaint accuses Thomas Clark of mishandling and/or interfering with cases, reportedly ruling deaths as accidents when they may have in fact been homicides. The complaint reportedly notes specifically a case from earlier this month involving the death of a 15-month-old child.

When the little girl was brought to the Medical Examiner's office Clark determined she'd died as a result of accidental asphyxiation, despite other hospital specialists' collective belief the girl may have been intentionally suffocated.

"Dr. Clark reaches inappropriate conclusions about cause and manner of death through his deliberate disregard of forensic evidence … (and) fails in his management of cases to adhere to established practice standards set forth by academic forensic pathology literature," the complaint reportedly states.

"By my judgment, there is a good chance we have left in place an individual who has demonstrated a proclivity to child abuse," Quinn reportedly said. "And we have left that individual in the home where there is another child, and that to me is unconscionable."

Clark is also accused of instructing ME staff "to omit documentation of findings that are inconsistent with his conclusions," KOMO News reported.

In addition to Clark's alleged mishandling of cases, the complaint also states the Medical Examiner has created a toxic work environment, in which he is described as "an office bully," KOMO News reported.

The county is reportedly investigating the complaint. Clark has not offered any public comment at this time.

Click here for the full report from KOMO News.

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Image via Ted S. Warren/AP