Commonwealth Court orders Allegheny County to provide autopsy reports to journalists, public

A state court has ruled that Allegheny County must release a medical examiner’s full autopsy report to journalists or members of the public when they request it, reversing an earlier court decision.

An attorney for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association called the decision “a great win for public access.”

In a 6-1 decision Tuesday, the Commonwealth Court reversed an earlier trial court ruling and ordered Allegheny County to produce autopsy records for Daniel A. Pastorek, a 63-year-old inmate who officials said died from heart disease in the county jail on Thanksgiving Day 2020.

Investigative reporter Brittany Hailer, director of the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, filed a public records request to get autopsy records a month after Pastorek’s death, court records show. She said she wanted to know if jail conditions contributed to Pastorek’s death.

Nineteen inmates have died at Allegheny County Jail since January 2020, giving the jail one of the highest death rates per capita in the U.S., said County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, D-Brighton Heights, a member of the Jail Oversight Board.

County officials have up to 30 days to appeal the matter to the state Supreme Court.

“It’s a great decision and it’s a great win for public access — not just for journalists, but for the public as well,” said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. “We’re really talking about language … that applies statewide.”

Tuesday’s ruling is the first time a state court has addressed language written into the Coroner’s Act in 2018, Melewsky said.

In the Commonwealth Court’s majority opinion, Judge Ellen Ceisler wrote that accepting the Dec. 1, 2021, ruling by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge W. Terrence O’Brien “would lead to the absurd result that a requester could receive autopsy records located anywhere in the commonwealth, unless those records are located in (Allegheny) County or Philadelphia County.”

Ceisler added: “In the latter circumstance, only a nongovernmental agency investigating an insurance claim or determining liability for a decedent’s death is permitted access to coroner records. There is no language in the Right-to-Know Law or the Coroner’s Act to suggest that access to certain public records depends on the county class in which the records are located.”

Officials argued that because Allegheny County is a Second Class county based on its population, laws about releasing autopsy records don’t apply to them, court records show. O’Brien’s 2021 opinion sided with county officials.

In his dissent opinion, Commonwealth Court Judge Michael H. Wojcik said there is “no provision in the Coroner’s Act that requires the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner to disclose autopsy and toxicology records to the general public at any time.”

It remained unclear Tuesday if county officials would appeal.

“The law department is presently reviewing the decision and will assess the county’s options,” county spokeswoman Amie Downs said.

She declined further comment.

“We don’t know if (an appeal) is something the county wants to do,” said attorney Sasha Dudding, a legal fellow with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C. “But, otherwise, when Brittany requests these records, the county has to provide them.”

Dudding argued on Hailer’s behalf in front of the seven-judge Commonwealth Court panel in May.

In the early months of the covid-19 pandemic, Hailer helped form the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Hailer also has taught journalism at the University of Pittsburgh since 2018.

A month after Hailer’s Right-to-Know Law request, the medical examiner provided the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism with the cause and manner of the inmate’s death, but denied access to autopsy records, court records show. Hailer appealed to the state Office of Open Records, which granted her request.

“This was an effort to make Allegheny County the exception to the rest of Pennsylvania — and at a time we have a jail whose death rate is twice the national average,” Hailer, 33, said.

It is rare for members of the public to request autopsy records for people who are not family, said the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association’s Melewsky.

Reporter requests are more common, she said.

The state Office of Open Records does not track the number of times journalists seek autopsy records in Pennsylvania, but at least 44 journalists have filed appeals with the office over access to autopsy reports since 2009, said Nathanael Byerly, the office’s deputy director.

Melewsky said the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association also sided with Allegheny County in the legal dispute. That organization was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Hallam said the Commonwealth Court ruling “is going to set a great precedent for smaller counties that don’t have the resources or the news agencies to fight governments that are not transparent.”

“I do think (the ruling) is the first step in showing Allegheny County administrators that they cannot hide what they’re doing behind closed doors,” she said. “Their salaries are paid by taxpayer dollars. Jail operations are paid by taxpayer dollars. The people have a right to know.”

One roadblock still does exist for quick access to autopsy information: Cost.

State law dictates that autopsy reports cost $500 for those not related to the family, court records show. A toxicology report costs $100.