‘Toxic work environment’ in medical examiner’s office pushes employees to the brink, including those in Brown, Door, Oconto counties

MADISON – The Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office has rehired an unpopular former operations director, prompting his shocked colleagues to air longstanding complaints that he and his bosses created “a toxic work environment” that top county officials failed to fix.

Twelve current and former employees told Wisconsin Watch that they endured screaming and insults from two of their bosses: Barry Irmen, operations director from 2011 until January, when he retired, returning to the office on a part-time, interim basis on April 27; and Dr. Agnieszka Rogalska, named chief medical examiner in January after eight years as deputy chief medical examiner.

Those upset by the hires include a former Oconto County coroner, who said Irmen and Rogalska treated deputy medical examiners from Oconto, Brown and Door counties "like we were ... northern wood ticks." Dane County contracts its autopsy services with those three counties and Rock County.

Former pathologists said they gave up lucrative contracts to preserve their mental health. High employee turnover worsened a backlog of autopsy cases, leaving families waiting for death certificates, multiple employees said.

Multiple employees accused Dr. Vincent Tranchida of standing idle while witnessing animosity that spanned more than a decade. Rogalska replaced Tranchida, who now is a deputy medical examiner.

In an email to Wisconsin Watch, Tranchida denied witnessing Irmen or Rogalska yell, scream or “interact with employees in a way that was unprofessional.”

But he said he had “fielded questions and concerns regarding multiple members of my staff at various levels of employment, including Dr. Rogalska and Barry Irmen. These concerns were discussed and investigated, and corrective actions taken where needed.”

Rogalska, who is paid a $331,780 annual salary, denied the accusations. “I have never screamed, insulted or bullied any employee or witnessed the same from any other employee,” she wrote in a statement.

Irmen, who makes $90 an hour, also denied yelling or screaming at employees in the office. “I do not believe that the environment (is) toxic or hostile,” he said in a statement, adding: “Part of every job has something that we don’t enjoy doing.”

Tensions peaked in April after Sue Eskola resigned as operations director four months into Irmen’s brief retirement, according to Brian Standing, president of AFSCME Local 1871, Dane County’s public sector employee union chapter. That’s when Rogalska announced Irmen’s temporary return during the search for Eskola’s replacement.

Complaints about Irmen’s behavior trickled in for a decade, Standing said, but few advanced because employees hesitated to document interactions for fear of retaliation.

Until now.

Speaking to Wisconsin Watch, current and former investigators, autopsy technicians and pathologists described hostile working conditions. Those who left said they would have stayed under better management.

Tranchida described Rogalska and Irmen as hard-working colleagues with rigorous scientific and professional standards. “Some employees may not be compatible with a workplace,” he added.

“Our goal is always to provide the most scientifically accurate and humane service we can to the public we serve and to support our staff in their work as best we can,” he wrote.

In 2020, the county’s Employee Relations Division and the Office for Equity and Inclusion jointly investigated the medical examiner’s office workplace culture. Employees received a summary of their concerns alongside reminders of county policies.

The document described office work environment challenges as “similar to other County work environments.” It also appeared to scold complaining employees, stating, “Some staff expressed concerns about co-workers gossiping, spreading rumors and slandering other employees or Management.”

Multiple employees said conditions have not improved.

‘I was jealous of the body on the table’

Pathologist Dr. Anita Rajkumar told Wisconsin Watch that the office climate contributed to her suicidal thoughts that eased once she left.

Rajkumar arrived in 2017 after the county recruited her, sponsored her work visa and paid for her relocation from Canada. Her working relationship with Irmen, Tranchida and Rogalska quickly deteriorated, she said.

Rogalska agreed to let Rajkumar designate a safe word — banana — to halt escalating arguments, according to Tranchida’s summary of a conversation provided by Rajkumar.

Rajkumar said Rogalska would stand over her shoulder while she edited reports, nitpicking her writing. She said her work frequently spanned late nights or early mornings. Rajkumar, who is of East Indian ancestry, said Rogalska once whispered to her that she was a “brown stripe on our flag” and separately scolded her for walking down hallways “very aggressively.”

In a statement, Rogalska denied making any racist remarks about Rajkumar.

Rajkumar said she contemplated suicide before her loved ones encouraged her to find another employer to sponsor her visa. A therapist who counseled Rajkumar wrote that “her serious mental health issues are solely related to the way she was treated at her job as a medical examiner.”

She left in 2019 and now works as a medical examiner in New Jersey.

“I am extraordinarily happy where I’ve landed,” she said.

Dr. Cori Breslauer, who joined the office as a forensic pathologist in 2020, described similar despair over office working conditions.

Breslauer, who is transgender and uses they/them pronouns, said most colleagues accepted their identity. But Irmen and Rogalska would “maliciously misgender me,” Breslauer said. Irmen addressed Breslauer repeatedly as “ma’am” even after being told to stop, they said.

Rogalska and Irmen told Wisconsin Watch that they never intentionally misgendered Breslauer, adding that they apologized after any pronoun slip-ups.

Rogalska would repeatedly reject Breslauer’s medical opinions and set unrealistic expectations during on-call shifts that destroyed their personal life, Breslauer said.

“I was jealous of the body on the table,” Breslauer said. “There were days I would come to the office, and I would look at the body on the table and would want to trade places.”

Breslauer feared retaliation for requesting a sick day to see a counselor, so never did.

Tranchida declined to comment on Breslauer’s “protected health information” but said he would have directed any employee who was struggling to the Dane County Employee Assistance Program, which offers free counseling and other resources.

Dane County hired a mediator to work with Bresaluer and Rogalska, but by December 2021, Breslauer had already announced plans to leave. Just weeks before the resignation, Tranchida recommended a 15% merit raise for Bresaluer, citing “exemplary performance.”

Said Breslauer: “I was immediately cured the moment I left that office.”

Treated ‘like we were stupid, northern wood ticks,’ former Oconto County coroner says

The alleged toxicity spilled beyond Dane County.

Under Tranchida, Dane County began contracting autopsy services to other counties, with Irmen overseeing the partnership.

La Crosse County Chief Medical Examiner Tim Candahl said he asked his county board to halt the Dane County contract after things “got testy” during a six-month partnership in 2013 that worsened the workload of his part-time staff.

“I just got to a point where I couldn’t take it no more,” he said.

Jeff Jansen served as interim chief medical examiner of Brown, Door and Oconto counties in 2015 as their offices transitioned to a contract with Dane County.

He said every deputy medical examiner in those counties before the Dane County partnership — about 15 total, he estimated — left because of how Irmen and Rogalska treated them.

The departing deputies included Laurie Parisey of Oconto County, who said Irmen and Rogalska “treated us like we were stupid, northern wood ticks.”

“Dane County was trouble from Day One — absolute nightmare,” said Parisey, who served as Oconto County’s coroner for 14 years, starting in 1992.

Irmen attributed the tension to disagreements over new policies that “required a higher level of forensic investigation as well as more accountability” and lost autonomy for staff in those counties. In a statement, Irmen said of county relationships, “There was no poor treatment.”

“The investigative policies were not well received in many cases and this ultimately caused frustration with staff and in some cases heated discussion about the need for change,” he wrote.

‘I can't deal with this anymore’

Kurt Karbusicky, a longtime Dane County death investigator and former chief deputy coroner, recalled the day in 2013 when he had enough.

He had returned from a pair of gruesome death scenes — a car crash and a sexual assault and homicide — when Irmen complained that Karbusicky hadn’t supplemented his teammate’s photos with his own. Irmen yelled at Karbusicky in front of colleagues, Karbusicky said.

“I felt disappointed. I felt humiliated. I felt belittled.” Karbusicky said.

He resigned and sought counseling for stress.

At one point, Karbusicky added, Irmen and Tranchida told him to answer a county cell phone 24/7 and respond to supervisor emails within five minutes of receiving them.

Irmen denied yelling at Karbusicky, attributing office-wide tension to the more rigorous standards adopted during the transition from an elected coroner’s office to an appointed medical examiner's in 2011.

Karbusicky recalled telling Tranchida and county board supervisors that Irmen’s behavior was “destroying the office.”

“I’ve always been willing to talk about it,” he said. “But nobody was willing to listen.”

The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Dane County Medical Examiner's Office 'toxic,' former employees say