EL PASO, Texas -- The El Paso County public defender s office has expanded its review of cases involving the county s fired medical examiner to include all murder and manslaughter cases it has handled since he was hired in 2005.
The office has already looked at cases it handled since 2007 and found none in which it challenged Dr. Paul Shrode s credibility in court, the El Paso Times reported Sunday. That review turned up three cases involving Shrode. Two ended in guilty pleas, and one involved Shrode s testimony about an autopsy by another medical examiner, said Bob Storch, spokesman for the public defender s office.
In Shrode s testimony against Quinn Cruz Jr., his credentials weren t challenged because he didn t draw any conclusions, Storch said. Cruz eventually was convicted of killing a pregnant woman and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
The expanded review will cover 20 cases, Storch said.
A message The Associated Press left Sunday at a number listed for Shrode was not returned.
El Paso County commissioners fired Shrode late last month, more than two years after he acknowledged he lied on his resume about having a law degree. Commissioner Veronica Escobar said then that the county was notified last year that Shrode was no longer eligible to become board certified in pathology, despite his claims of having received the certification years earlier.
Shrode testified in an Ohio capital murder case where officials are now recommending the death sentence be overturned. Defense attorneys in the 13-year-old capital murder case challenged his testimony, which prompted the Ohio Parole Board to recommend that Richard Nields death sentence be overturned. He is scheduled for execution June 10.
Defense attorneys may challenge the credibility of expert witnesses against their clients, including medical examiners.
The managing attorney of the New York-based Innocence Group, which uses DNA evidence to free those who were wrongly convicted, said it was unusual that public defenders had not challenged Shrode s credibility sooner.
If he lied about his credentials, it would be odd not to attack them, David Loftis told the Times.
Questions have embroiled the El Paso County medical examiner s office since the Texas Medical Board suspended Dr. Juan Contin s medical license in 1991, stayed the suspension and placed him on probation for three years. The board cited Contin for unprofessional conduct likely to deceive, defraud or injure the public, the Times reported. Contin was required to attend 25 hours of ethics courses and pass a medical jurisprudence exam. His probation was lifted and his license freed of restrictions in 1994.
Contin was El Paso s medical examiner for 24 years before the commissioners fired him in 2000 for unrelated matters. The Times reported Contin remains certified by the American Board of Pathology in forensic, clinical and anatomic pathology and is serving as Shrode s interim successor.
