http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2294336By BRIAN SKOLOFF
JUPITER, Fla. Aug 9, 2006 (AP)? The medical examiner who performed a disputed autopsy on a teenager who died at a boot camp for juvenile offenders was negligent in performing at least 35 of nearly 700 autopsies reviewed, state officials said Wednesday.
The Florida Medical Examiners Commission recommended that Dr. Charles Siebert be placed on supervised probation for the remaining 10 months of his contract in Bay County in the Florida Panhandle.
A panel of commission members reviewed 698 autopsies dating to August 2003 and found that Siebert had sometimes failed "to perform the duties required of a medical examiner."
The commission, which met Wednesday in Jupiter in southern Florida, planned to file a complaint next week. Siebert will have 30 days to accept the punishment or appeal. He is paid $180,000 a year.
Siebert's practices came into question after he performed an autopsy on 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, who died Jan. 6 after guards at the boot camp were videotaped kicking and punching him.
Siebert ruled the death was caused by complications from sickle cell trait, a genetic blood disorder. A second autopsy by another doctor found Anderson died of suffocation.
State Attorney General Charlie Crist in April called for an investigation into Siebert's past autopsies. The Anderson case was not included in the review.
Most of the alleged negligence came from Siebert's use of "canned" autopsy reports that used the same terminology to detail conditions of organs and other body parts, the commission found. It appeared Siebert was using a template for his reports and not adjusting them to individual cases.
In one case, Siebert noted the presence of a "prostate gland and testes" organs found only in men on the body of a girl.
Siebert said that he has not decided whether to appeal and that he has never used a template.
"There's only so many ways you can describe what a spleen looks like," he told The Associated Press.
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