By: The Orleans Parish coroner has been sued by The Times-Picayune of New Orleans over his refusal to make public the autopsy results of nine patients who died at a hospital after being trapped by Hurricane Katrina.
The deaths at Memorial Medical Center led to Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti launching a criminal investigation against one surgeon and two nurses who stayed to work at the sweltering, flooded hospital during the hurricane.
A grand jury refused to indict Dr. Anna Pou on July 24. The nurses, Cheri Landry and Lori Budo, testified before the panel under immunity. Foti accused Pou and the nurses of killing patients by overdosing them with a sedative-painkiller mix during the days after Hurricane Katrina, when Memorial Medical Center and other hospitals had no power and no way to evacuate.
Times-Picayune reporter Laura Maggi requested the nine autopsy reports two days after the grand jury chose not to indict Pou, citing the Louisiana public records law.
But Coroner Frank Minyard has repeatedly said, through his attorney, that he will not produce any of the autopsy reports because he believes they are still the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation and therefore exempt from the Public Records Act.
In a suit filed Wednesday in state district court, The Times-Picayune alleges that Minyard is violating the public records law. The newspaper contends that the criminal investigation is over ? and the autopsy results should be available for public scrutiny.
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