State officials have ousted Dr. Richard Callery, the embattled state medical examiner, for using state resources for his personal business.
The Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) didn’t so much fire Callery as they didn’t hire him back after state lawmakers voted to move the office to the Department of Safety and Homeland Security (DSHS).
It also coincidentally deleted Callery’s job from state code.
That allowed the state to stop paying him his six-figure salary and avoided what could’ve been a lengthy personnel battle.
DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf sidestepped questions about that outcome, but Sen. Greg Lavelle (R-Sharpley) says the Markell Administration made it clear to him.
“I can’t remember if it was [Rita Landgraf] or [Markell’s Chief of Staff] Mike Barlow, but one of the two communicated that was their intent and part of the result of the bill was to eliminate him and really not fire him,” said Lavelle.
An internal investigation found “egregious” and “profound” violations, with Callery serving as a private expert-for-hire in at least seven cases handled by his office.
Further details of that report were not released, with Landgraf citing an ongoing criminal investigation into his work.
She is also referring her findings to the medical licensure and discipline board for further review.
Landgraf wouldn’t discuss how far back the medical examiner’s misdeeds stretched, but says she was unaware of them.
“Every other week each division submits to me a report about what is occurring in their division and I went through all those reports and not one time did I find things that resonated to this level,” said Landgraf.
Another report, put together by consultant Andrews International, cited many issues of the office stemmed from a lack of leadership, with Callery delegating day-to-day operations to Deputy Director Hal Brown, who has no forensic science training.
“Open animosity” and no communication among the senior management team also attributed to the lack of cohesion in the office according to the report.
The Controlled Substance Lab – which has seen its own share of problems related to two employees allegedly rounding up drug evidence to sell on the side – was found to have doors propped with drug evidence left unattended. Records regarding the transfer of evidence were sometimes delayed for days.
No background checks or drug tests were performed on those handling evidence.
The employee manual further underscores these deficiencies, telling workers to “jiggle” the evidence storage handles because they have a tendency to stick.
According to the report, there’s no indication staff members know of an outdated plan or were trained on how to react to mass fatality or mass disasters related to weapons of mass destruction.
A leaky roof and other infrastructure problems could affect evidence stored there. The consultant recommends building a new facility, an idea Attorney General Beau Biden also supported in April.
During state senate hearings regarding the medical examiner earlier this year, lawmakers peppered Landgraf with questions about how this went undiscovered. She says she kept regular contact with Callery, but nothing tripped her radar.
“There was only so many things that I as the sitting cabinet secretary within this department could do, unless you put the secretary in there to operate that organization and that wouldn’t have been appropriate when the organization I operate is the department,” she said.
DSHS Secretary Lou Schiliro says security upgrades at the Controlled Substance Lab are ongoing and it should be able to begin processing drug evidence in the next two to three weeks. The state had been outsourcing the material to a lab in Pennsylvania.
The search for a new medical examiner is also underway, but Lavelle says the damage Callery left in his wake won’t be so easily undone.
“The state will be digging itself out for years because of what this guy did.”
