- The Cook County medical examiner's office is taking the unusual step of reviewing the entire caseload of a pathologist who was fired the end of last year, so far changing eight findings with nearly 200 cases still to be re-examined.
“They were clerical errors and then there were some errors with his medical findings,’’ medical examiner spokeswoman Becky Schlikerman said of the work by John E. Cavanaugh.
In one case, Cavanaugh's finding of a suicide was changed to undetermined because of questions over how the victim suffered a gunshot wound to the head. In another, his finding of undetermined was changed to homicide after the review found evidence of an assault.
In all, the office plans to review all 219 cases handled by Cavanaugh from the time he was hired in January 2017, at an annual salary of $250,000, to when he was fired last November. So far, the office has examined 23 cases and changed findings in eight of them.
One-third of the reviewed cases so far were reclassified. Just who exactly was he connected to? And at a quarter million per year, how many more incompetent coroners remain on staff?
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