July 29, 1994 - Part 4
July 29, 1994 - Part 4
(16:25:36) Dr. BEYER. These are forms that frequently I will make out ahead of time in preparation for the autopsy, This particular one, there is a place for photographs. There's a place for X-ray. I put the Senator DODD. What do you mean by "a place"? The CHAIRMAN. Well, here you can see it on this form. Dr. BEYER. It was a check. Senator DODD. It is a checkmark? Dr, BEYER. That's correct. Senator DODD. In other words, it is a standard form you use? Dr. BEYER. That's correct. Senator DODD. You would check the various things you were going to do in the normal course of conducting an autopsy with a violent death, a gunshot death? Dr. BEYER. That's correct. Senator DODD. You did not know the condition of your X-ray machine at the time you filled out that form? Dr. BEYER. We were having trouble with it. Some days we would get a partial readable X-ray. Other days, we wouldn't. Senator DODD. But in this case if it were working, you would have done an X-ray? Dr. BEYER. Yes, sir. Senator DODD. You checked on the form that that is what you intended to do? Dr. BEYER. My error was not in removing the "yes" when I finalized the autopsy. Senator DODD. That is the only incorrect mark on this autopsy form? Dr. BEYER. That's correct. The CHAIRMAN. Now, if you will permit me to just go one step further. I take it that that report is two or three pages of which the front page is sort of the checklist of things that you intend to do with respect to this autopsy, and then it is the subsequent pages that, in fact, provide the analysis that you develop in the course of actually performing it, so that you have got to read all the way through to the end to really get to what at you determine? Am I right about that? Dr. BEYER. Yes, sir. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Mr, Chairman, may I ask another question? The CHAIRMAN. Yes, of course. Senator DODD. I presume I can capture my time? The CHAIRMAN. Yes. 97 Senator DODD. I will be glad to yield if be wants to go further with it. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Dr. Beyer, you checked on this report, I assume, that you were going, to take an X-ray. You just testified your machine had not worked for I 5 days when you checked it. Dr. BEYER. It was variable in the way we could use it. On that particular day, it was not producing a readable X-ray. Senator FAIRCLOTH. Did you look at your forms before you filed them to check them for accuracy? Dr. BEYER. Apparently I did not check that one, or else that would have been erased. Senator FAIRCLOTH. All right. Thank you. The CHAiRmAN. But I guess your testimony to us, and I think it is important because your reputation is at stake here, too, that that is noted in error. You put it down there thinking you were planning to do the X- ray. You were not able to do the X-ray because this machine sometimes works and sometimes didn't. It did not when it needed to in this case, and you forgot to remove the checkmark. So that was an inadvertency on your part, and that is your explanation? Dr. BEYER. That's correct. Senator DODD. Mr. Chairman? The CHAIRMAN. Yes, Senator Dodd. Senator DODD. That is the point. Just to put this in the context of everything here. The fact that there was or was not an X-ray of Mr. Foster in no way would have changed the conclusion of the analysis that you drew as a result of conducting the autopsy'? Dr. BEYER. That's correct. If I bad felt that we needed an X-ray, I would have sent the body out to one of the hospitals for an Xray to be taken. As I indicated previously, in perforating gunshot wounds, the X- ray is not mandatory When we want to visualize the retention of a missile in a penetrating gunshot wound, then it is a mandatory procedure, Senator DODD. Let me state that I want to commend all three of you. Under the circumstances here, I think you did a very good job. It is not always easy for people a year later to go back-you do not anticipate that you are going to be the subject of a Senate inquiry and have thirty-some- odd Senators start grilling you about everything you did. I think you did a good job. I am not an expert in this area, but having one over your depositions and listened, I think you did very professional work. The CHAiRmAN, Plus, you do bard work. I mean, if I may, excuse me for interrupting , I appreciate the difficulty of the assignment police officers, You have. To be investigating death scenes, talking the families, trying to sort these things out, to do autopsies, to try to figure out what happened in a violent death and so forth add difficult work and it ought to be respected and I want to a ice to Senator Dodd's I appreciate the fact that you do this Senator DODD. Dr. Beyer, let me say particularly in your case that you have had a distinguished career over many, many years. as disturbed to see some reports alleging behavior in a particular where you did not have all the information to draw the conclusions. I think that kind of reporting and that kind of effort to discredit someone who has done more than 25 years of work in this particular office is just the kind of scurrilous reporting that I think does not serve anyone's interests well at all.