State Completes Amend Hearing; Has 90 Days To Rule

A state disciplinary panel wrapped up its hearing Thursday on Dexter Amend, but has up to 90 days to say whether the Spokane County coroner will keep his medical license.

The five-member panel can take three months to issue written findings following the three-day hearing at the Ridpath Hotel.

Amend could lose his medical license, receive a slap on the wrist or be cleared of the charges. The decision won’t affect Amend’s elected position as coroner.

The Medical Quality Assurance Commission charged Amend in March with moral turpitude in the death investigations of Rachel Carver, Kendra Grantham, Mario Lozada and Jeffrey Himes.

Moral turpitude is conduct that reflects poorly on the medical community and demeans the profession in the eyes of the public.

Amend, a 77-year-old retired urologist, was accused of asking inappropriate questions of the families of Grantham and Himes and making poor medical decisions in the deaths of Carver and Lozada.

Amend’s lawyer, Hugh Lackie, argued that Amend’s decisions were sound and made as a coroner - not a doctor. Lackie said Amend asked questions about drugs and sex as a coroner trying to determine causes of death.

In his closing statement Thursday, Lackie asked the panel to dismiss the charges - and praise Amend for his volunteer work at Union Gospel Mission.

“There is nothing,” Lackie said about the state’s case against Amend. “There is nothing there but goodness and a fine practice.”

The state argued that Amend’s conduct has lowered the standing of the medical profession. Assistant Attorney General David Hankins said Amend represents himself as a medical doctor, signing correspondence and death certificates as a doctor and relying on his medical background in making decisions.

Amend shouldn’t be able to hide behind his elected position, Hankins told the panel.

“He cannot use that as a shield and then turn around and use the benefits of a medical degree as a sword,” he said.

Amend announced publicly that 9-year-old Rachel Carver, bludgeoned to death by her uncle, was sodomized throughout her life before her autopsy was finished. He blamed “the homosexual lifestyle” for her abuse.

Lackie argued that forensic pathologist George Lindholm, who performed the autopsy, strongly suggested the girl had been abused and that Amend had permission from the victim’s father to release details of the case.

But Rachel’s mother testified Thursday that she had sole custody and decision-making powers for the girl. Hankins said Amend failed to get the proper parental permission, violated Rachel’s confidentiality and used poor judgment in saying the girl had been sodomized.

In the Lozada case, Amend’s opinion on how Lozada died differed with Lindholm, who also conducted that autopsy.

Amend said Lozada died of a heart attack brought on by methamphetamines. Lindholm said the man died because he couldn’t breathe due to police restraints, physical exertion and methamphetamines.

Lackie presented testimony from a lung expert in Colorado, who agreed with Amend’s judgment, and characterized the dispute as a difference of opinion between two doctors.

Hankins produced written testimony from two other forensic pathologists who agreed with Lindholm. He also argued that Amend didn’t consult any doctors before writing the death certificate.

After a court challenge, the certificate was changed to a compromise.

Amend was accused of asking Grantham’s mother if the 16-year-old girl was ever sodomized by a gang member. She died of a gunshot wound to the head. Amend denies asking the question.

Amend does admit asking the brother and mother of Himes, 11, if he was masturbating before burning to death in a small shed. Amend insists he was trying to determine why the boy was in the shed.

“The term ‘masturbation’ - is that such a terrible word that we cringe, that we fall backward, that we gasp?” Lackie said. “No, of course not.”

But Hankins said the word “masturbation” wasn’t relevant to a child who died in a fire.

“It was used at a time when a mother had just lost her son who burnt and died of smoke inhalation,” Hankins said. “I submit to you, what does it matter what they were doing in the shed? It does not.”

, DataTimes