Dr. Vernard Adams is the Medical Examiner for Hillsborough County. He explains the behind the scenes of what the examiners really do and its nothing like what you see on television.Dr. Adams has been the examiner for 18 years and has been in the news multiple times. A Web-site called Zoominfo has the news stories that Dr. Adams has been involved in. However, an interesting story that I found out about Dr. Adams, was that he was involved in the Billy Mays tragic death case.
“Adams said authorities had ruled out prescription drug abuse. Mays was taking prescription painkillers Tramadol and hydrocodone for hip pain, but the pill counts showed that Mays had taken the correct amount, according to the medical examiner,” according to The Times.
The examiner has two investigative tools which are inquiry and examination.
Inquiry consists of looking at records and talking to people. They have to get hospital records and doctor’s records. And they have to talk with the doctors and with the families. The examiner relies upon the police for a lot of the scene investigation; however they do a lot of them ourselves but work closely with them.
Examination is the close inspection of a dead body at the scene or at the office; and an examination can include an autopsy report and an internal examination, which is done at the office; also included are insulin tests done on specimens from an autopsy such as bacterial cultures, chemical tests, and most frequently test for drugs.
So what does all of this have to do with public records? Well, like any other government based organization, everything must be opened to the public and in order to do that a public record must be produced.
“We generate records such as autopsy reports, toxicology reports notes from telephone conversations, notes from hospital records. All are public accept when if the investigation is considered an active criminal investigation. The custodian of records, me, gets to determine if it is a public records,” said Dr. Adams.
Something that I found interesting was that all the files are all color coded.
· Red files are homicide
· Black files are traffic accidents
· Yellow files are suicides
· White files are non-traffic accidents
· Orange files are undetermined
“Records that we shown go back about 4 years, but they have room for 10 year old records; once they reach the stage where they need to move out they go to the County’s Record Center. Basically by then they become archives and have to be accessed by appointment,” said Dr. Adams.
Everything in the records can be accessed except the photos unless it’s under active investigation.
I researched the County’s Record Center and found a very usable Web-site called The Records Project. The site has great information and it really sums up everything that we have learned all semester in Public Affairs Reporting class. It has Hillsborough Adoption Details, Hillsborough Background Checks, Hillsborough Births, Hillsborough Cemetery Records, Hillsborough Court Records, Hillsborough Death Records, Hillsborough Genealogy Resources, Hillsborough Marriage Records, Hillsborough Obituaries, and last but certainly not least, the Hillsborough Police Records.
I feel that Gil was right on the money to leave Dr. Adams for the last tour. I found myself understanding Dr. Adams when he was taking about the traffic accident reports and the Clerk’s office. Overall, I enjoyed this video and Dr. Adams, he was funny (in a dry-sense of humor way).
Inquiry consists of looking at records and talking to people. They have to get hospital records and doctor’s records. And they have to talk with the doctors and with the families. The examiner relies upon the police for a lot of the scene investigation; however they do a lot of them ourselves but work closely with them.
Examination is the close inspection of a dead body at the scene or at the office; and an examination can include an autopsy report and an internal examination, which is done at the office; also included are insulin tests done on specimens from an autopsy such as bacterial cultures, chemical tests, and most frequently test for drugs.
So what does all of this have to do with public records? Well, like any other government based organization, everything must be opened to the public and in order to do that a public record must be produced.
“We generate records such as autopsy reports, toxicology reports notes from telephone conversations, notes from hospital records. All are public accept when if the investigation is considered an active criminal investigation. The custodian of records, me, gets to determine if it is a public records,” said Dr. Adams.
Something that I found interesting was that all the files are all color coded.
· Red files are homicide
· Black files are traffic accidents
· Yellow files are suicides
· White files are non-traffic accidents
· Orange files are undetermined
“Records that we shown go back about 4 years, but they have room for 10 year old records; once they reach the stage where they need to move out they go to the County’s Record Center. Basically by then they become archives and have to be accessed by appointment,” said Dr. Adams.
Everything in the records can be accessed except the photos unless it’s under active investigation.
I researched the County’s Record Center and found a very usable Web-site called The Records Project. The site has great information and it really sums up everything that we have learned all semester in Public Affairs Reporting class. It has Hillsborough Adoption Details, Hillsborough Background Checks, Hillsborough Births, Hillsborough Cemetery Records, Hillsborough Court Records, Hillsborough Death Records, Hillsborough Genealogy Resources, Hillsborough Marriage Records, Hillsborough Obituaries, and last but certainly not least, the Hillsborough Police Records.
I feel that Gil was right on the money to leave Dr. Adams for the last tour. I found myself understanding Dr. Adams when he was taking about the traffic accident reports and the Clerk’s office. Overall, I enjoyed this video and Dr. Adams, he was funny (in a dry-sense of humor way).
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