Medical examiner's libel lawsuit against funeral home directors moved to Escambia court

A libel lawsuit filed by the District 1 Medical Examiner against two Pensacola funeral home directors who wrote letters to the county complaining about the condition of bodies after autopsy is now being heard by an Escambia County judge.

Dr. Deanna Oleke’s lawsuit accuses Jerald Mitchell, director of Pensacola Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home, and Richard Trahan, director of Trahan Family Funeral Home, of libel and/or defamation, tortious interference and civil conspiracy.

Attorneys for Mitchell and Trahan filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit, as well as motions for a change of venue saying, “there is no basis for this lawsuit to lie in Gadsden County, Florida,” where it was originally filed in June.

In November, a Gadsden County judge ruled on the change of venue motions, agreeing the lawsuit should be heard in Escambia County, where the incidents at the center of the complaint are alleged to have happened.

The case has now been transferred to the Circuit Court of the First Judicial Circuit in Escambia County and Judge Jan Shackelford is assigned to it.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Oleske by Andrews Law Firm, a Tallahassee-based firm.

In it, Oleske said the funeral directors' “false, negative, misleading and defamatory statements” have hurt her “business practices, reputation and integrity,” and she is seeking damages.

Several funeral home directors sent letters to Escambia County commissioners that were made public in April. In them, they listed a number of allegations about the Medical Examiner's Office including the condition of bodies after autopsy being “butchered,” unclean and placed in bags that leak, as well as delays with filing paperwork or listing misleading or inaccurate causes of death.

Oleske denies the accusations and in her lawsuit states that the funeral director’s claims are politically motivated because they wanted the new medical examiner’s office to be built in Escambia County, closer to their businesses, instead of Santa Rosa County.

Recently, Escambia County leaders signed off on an interlocal agreement with the other three counties served by the District 1 Medical Examiner’s Office to build the new, multi-million dollar facility near Milton.

Initially some Escambia County commissioners pushed back on the idea of building a new facility in Santa Rosa County because Escambia County individually had the highest number of deaths compared to each of the other counties − Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton.

Prior to writing the letters, Richard “Rick” Bailey, Jr., who is funeral director of Waters Hibbert and is not named in the lawsuit, said he and three other Pensacola-based funeral directors met with Escambia County Commissioner Steven Barry at a restaurant owned by Barry’s family to discuss their ongoing concerns with the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Bailey said during the meeting all four funeral directors talked about their issues with the District 1 Medical Examiner’s Office, which handles autopsies for Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties, and that Barry and another funeral director encouraged them to write letters to the commission outlining their complaints.

Complaints against a medical examiner are typically filed with the Medical Examiner’s Commission under the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, but funeral director Richard Trahan said he reached out to Barry because he lived in his district, and he thought that would be the best place to start.

Trahan and Mitchell have filed additional motions in Escambia Circuit Court to dismiss the lawsuit. Among the reasons, they say Oleske “fails to provide any factual support for claims” that they “got together and concocted a plan” to prevent the relocation of the new District 1 medical examiner’s facility from Escambia to Santa Rosa County.

As part of the lawsuit, the Andrews law firm subpoenaed Escambia County for documentation and communications sent or received by commissioners Steven Barry, Jeff Bergosh, Robert Bender and Mike Kohler, as well as Escambia County Attorney Alison Rogers, from Sept. 1, 2022 to the present.

Previously: Medical examiner files suit against funeral home directors who complained about her

Escambia County is fighting the subpoena and requested the court "quash" it until the change of venue was resolved, saying the subpoena was "unreasonable in its breadth or calls for items protected by (HIPAA patient privacy laws)."

Oleske’s attorney also filed motions for default against Mitchell and Trahan because they failed to file responsive pleadings as their attorneys suggested, and the court ordered, after the venue was changed to Escambia County.

At the time of the transfer, the court ordered the defendants to submit a responsive pleading with any arguments for failure to state a cause of action, issues surrounding a motion to strike, and any other legal defense that could be asserted. The pleadings were to be filed within 20 days of the case being reassigned to Escambia County Circuit Court.

Oleske’s attorney also filed notices of serving a proposal for settlement to both Mitchell and Trahan.

The court has yet to rule on the defendant’s or plaintiff’s motions, but a hearing is scheduled for April 2, 2024, on the motions for default.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Medical examiner's libel lawsuit now being heard in Escambia County