Autopsy Files Denied In Amend Suit

A Spokane woman suing former county Coroner Dexter Amend cannot search autopsy records to learn if he made a common practice of investigating a dead person’s sexual history.

A Spokane judge Friday said Mabel Grantham’s desire to go through four years of autopsies would invade the privacy of many people whose autopsies Amend performed.

Grantham sued the county and Amend last year for infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy.

Her 16-year-old daughter, Kendra, was shot to death in 1995 while sitting on a front porch in north Spokane.

The day after the murder, Grantham said Amend called her to his office. He asked if Kendra had been sodomized in the past by gang members, said Grantham.

“That invasion of her privacy has left her unbelievably upset to this day,” said her attorney, Larry Neil Axtell, during a hearing before Spokane County Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza.

Axtell said he needed a list from the county of Amend’s autopsies to find other examples of similar inquiries by Amend about possible sodomy.

“We need these documents so that when we depose Dr. Amend, we can ask questions regarding why he conducted autopsies in that manner on a given date,” the attorney said.

Amend, whose four-year term ended Dec. 31, condemned homosexuality several times in comments to the media.

Two other suits filed by county residents against the county accuse Amend of trying to link the death of loved ones to sodomy.

But Cozza denied the request, ruling that it could invade the privacy of relatives of those autopsied.

He also said the information didn’t seem essential to the lawsuit.

Attorney Lisette Carter, representing the county, maintained that the other cases are irrelevant. “This case is about this autopsy. The other autopsies have no connection at all,” she said.

If the case goes to trial, Carter said she will show “Amend acted totally within the scope of his duties” and did not make insensitive remarks to Grantham.

After the hearing, Axtell said he doesn’t know if county autopsy reports include information on the sexual behavior of the person who died.

“That’s my point - the county won’t let us see any of those records,” he said. “But based on other cases, I’m sure there are other examples of the same thing.”

A spokesman for the county’s medical examiner office said evidence of sexual abuse is not included in autopsy reports unless the deceased was the victim of a sex crime.

Since Jan. 1, the county has turned over all duties formerly performed by the coroner to Medical Examiner George Lindholm.

The Grantham case is scheduled to go to trial in June.