County Hit With More Lawsuits Medical Examiner’s Office Accused Of Improprieties

Two more lawsuits have been filed against Pierce County over alleged mismanagement and improprieties at the medical examiner’s office under the watch of Dr. Emmanuel Lacsina.

A lawsuit filed by Andrew Dale Hale, a Tacoma mortgage broker, alleges autopsy photographs of his murdered wife and unborn child were misused by medical examiner employees.

Another suit filed by former medical investigator Paul Jay contends he was mistreated for talking to officials investigating the medical examiner’s office, and also sexually harassed.

The cases, filed last week, are among several suits and claims that have arisen since May, when concerns were raised about the medical examiner’s office. Claims of misused photos and questionable sexual behavior eventually led to the firing of Lacsina as medical examiner.

Hale’s wife, Sally Ann Hale, was nearly seven months pregnant when she was stabbed to death in a Safeway in Oakbrook on Dec. 26, 1982. Doctors were unable to save her or her baby, later named Sarah.

Hale’s suit alleges that medical examiner employees showed autopsy photographs of Sally Ann and Sarah Hale to “unauthorized voyeurs and necrophiles.” It also alleges that office supervisors knew the photographs were being misused.

“These photographs were shown to a traffic safety class, and they were shown to different places around,” said Jack Connelly, Hale’s lawyer. “It’s very bothersome to a person who lost his wife and his child in this manner.”

The suit names Pierce County, Lacsina, and former examiner’s employees Jane Weber, Eberhard Bruell and William Barnes. It also listed as defendants three unnamed employees of the department.

Barnes on Thursday referred questions on the case to his lawyer, Philip Sloan. Sloan couldn’t be reached for comment.

Bruell, who was fired last year for insubordination and later sued the county, has denied taking unauthorized photographs or showing pictures of corpses to anyone who shouldn’t have seen them.

Attorney Ross Burgess is representing Pierce County and Weber, who resigned in September. Burgess, too, declined to discuss the case.

Jay’s lawsuit indicates he had a brief affair with Weber shortly after he was hired in 1991. After the affair ended, “his career track for promotion was ended and management’s view of him progressively soured.”

Jay resigned from the medical examiner’s office in May.