Pathologist, FBI go way back
By Christopher Ruddy
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Dr. James Beyer, 79, the pathologist at the center of the controversy
involving young Tommy Burkett's death, also has played a pivotal role
in the Foster case. Though Beyer is employed by the state of Virginia,
new information indicates he has strong links with federal
authorities, particularly the FBI.
Authorities have assiduously asserted Foster's death to be a suicide,
with primary evidence being Beyer's autopsy. Bureau officials may have
good reason to back up Beyer's findings. For starters, Beyer has
changed his story on significant aspects of the Foster case that could
show the FBI played a greater role than admitted.
In an interview Jan. 20, 1994 - just six months after Foster's death
and before any real controversy arose concerning it - Beyer said that
an FBI agent and a Secret Service agent, in addition to Park Police
officers, were present when he conducted his autopsy on Foster.
Yet the Park Police claim that only their officers were present, and
Beyer has since recanted. The FBI has tried to distance itself from
the handling of the initial death investigation by the Park Police,
and has claimed FBI agents were not present at the autopsy or death
scene.
VIGOROUS SUPPORT
Beyer's original recollection may also shed light on the lengths to
which bureau officials have gone to absolve the Park Police of any
wrongdoing. Since the controversy over the death, FBI agents have
vigorously supported the suicide conclusion. FBI agents have also
testified that the Park Police made no significant errors in their
probe, though outside homicide experts have found many.
Beyer stated emphatically in his unrehearsed interview in January 1994
that he had not ruled Foster's death a suicide, only that the death
was "consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot." He said that in
Virginia police authorities rule on the death. Beyer also stated he
had never visited the death scene, did not review crime scene photos,
and did not even know the caliber of the gun found in Foster's hand.
Nor, he said, were any officers present who had been at the death
scene; Pathologists usually like to ask police questions to see if the
body's state is consistent with how it was found. (The Park Police
also violated their own procedures by not having such an officer
present.)
The Park Police, and later Special Counsel Robert Fiske, relied
heavily on Beyer's conclusions. During Senate hearings in 1994, Beyer
again reversed his position 180 degrees, stating emphatically that he
had ruled Foster's death a suicide. In an interview last week, Beyer
again said FBI and Secret Service agents were not present at the
autopsy. "I don't ever recall saying they were," he said.
Beyer also backed off a bit from his 1994 Senate testimony, calling
the determination of suicide a "combined decision" made by him and the
Park Police. Asked how he could have reached that conclusion without
the benefit of detectives who were at the scene, or photos of the
scene, or even knowing the caliber of the gun at the time of the
autopsy, he said he had several conversations with police after the
death. Beyer also said the gun's caliber had "no bearing" on his
autopsy.
Other pathologists, including the former medical examiner of New York,
Dr. Michael Baden, disagree, suggesting such information would be
important for any determination.
Another clue to understanding this puzzle of death may have been
discovered by Miquel Rodriquez, former lead prosecutor on the Foster
case under Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Rodriguez resigned this
year after his efforts to investigate the case were thwarted by
higher-ups and FBI officials, the Tribune-Review has reported.
Rodriguez discovered that Beyer, far from being just an impartial
state pathologist, has a long association with the FBI and lectured
for many years at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. Beyer confirmed
that he has worked with the FBI for 10 years or more. He also has
served as a consultant to the Pentagon.
SELECTIVE AMNESIA
Whether Beyer's connection with the bureau played a role in the FBI's
handling of key cases is unclear, but the FBI's selective
investigatory amnesia seems strange.
In two recent cases - Foster's and the deaths of the two boys - the
FBI has apparently made its own rules, even dismissing two credible
autopsies that in the real world show evidence of murder. No matter,
the press has shown little interest in the case. The FBI's secret
investigations have now ended with secret reports.
Likewise, in the Foster case, there has been no second autopsy. And
key forensic evidence such as blond hairs and carpet fibers found all
over Foster's clothing could have been from anywhere, one agent told a
Senate committee.
To explain the weird circumstances of Foster's death, the FBI has even
suspended the laws of nature: inanimate carpet fibers "jumped" onto
his clothing; "bouncing" eyeglasses came to be found 19 feet from
where Foster's head lay; his "frictionless" shoes picked up not even a
speck of soil or grass despite his supposed long walk in the park; and
an "inverse gravity" allowed one stream of blood to flow uphill.
