AUGUSTA, Maine — A day after a member of the Maine Legislature’s Judiciary Committee filed yet another complaint against him, the state's chief medical examiner, Mark Flomenbaum, amended a report to exclude alcohol as among the reasons for a hiker's death in August.
The original autopsy report completed by Flomenbaum listed "acute and chronic alcoholism" as among the causes of the death of Jeffrey Aylward, 63, of Massachusettss, the Bangor Daily News reported.
But Aylward's family said he was diabetic and hadn't had a drink for 15 years. Forensic experts hired by the family -- who said the man was diabetic -- and by the Bangor Daily News, said that when a body decomposes, detectable alcohol is created in the body.
On Thursday, Rep. Jeff Evangelos, an Independent from Friendship, filed a third complaint against Flomenbaum, citing a 2017 job posting that Evangelos described as "sick" and "shocking" because he said it "make[s] jokes about deceased individuals."
Evangelos told NEWS CENTER Maine that the findings in the case clearly showed why the job advertisement was so inappropriate.
"So, any time a family loses somebody and that deceased person is subjected to the findings of the medical examiner's office, here we have the professional running that agency making jokes about deceased individuals," he said.
One day later, Flomenbaum issued an amended autopsy report listing the cause of death as "likely atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease due to diabetes emllitus," and stated the manner of death was "natural," according to a letter from Lindsey Chasteen in the medical examiner's office.
Flomenbaum's office declined on Monday to provide a copy of the amended autopsy report to NEWS CENTER Maine.