What
Where

Local listings from all over 80,000 websites.

Home : News : Metro :

Exclusive: New Scrutiny in Peterson Case

Updated: Thursday, 13 Aug 2009, 8:35 PM CDT
Published : Thursday, 13 Aug 2009, 5:59 PM CDT

    BY JEFF GOLDBLATT - WFLD

    It is said there are six degrees of separation between all of us, but the link between Drew Peterson and Greg Long is downright uncanny.

    Long believes the connection is so remarkably significant, that he made a plea for help after realizing the coincidence.

    Long and Peterson now are both behind bars. Both men are fighting murder charges. And the lives of both men could come down to what one man had to say. That person is forensic pathologist, Dr. Bryan R. Mitchell.

    Mitchell is the man who, for Will County, performed the original autopsy on Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio. On March 1, 2004, Savio was found dead at her home in a waterless bathtub, soaked in blood. After examining her body, it was in Mitchell's opinion, that Savio's death could be "ascribed to drowning."

    Based partly on Mitchell's autopsy of Savio, a coroner's jury determined her death to be an accidental drowning.

    After the disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife in October of 2007, Will County authorities approved the exhumation of Savio's body, so that it could undergo a second autopsy. That second autopsy led to a far different conclusion about Savio's death, and the case was reclassified a homicide. On May 7, 2009, Peterson was indicted by a Will County Grand Jury and charged with Savio's murder. He's now in the Will County Jail, where he awaits trial.

    ____________________________

    MORE DREW PETERSON COVERAGE

    ____________________________

    GREG LONG'S STORY

    Greg Long, on the other hand, has been locked up for almost nine years. At the Hill Correctional Center, a medium security state prison in Galesburg, Illinois, Long is known as inmate R-1-4-0-0-3.

    He was found guilty of murdering one his best friends on October 25, 2000. But all this time, he stood behind the belief that his trial had been flawed by a major error in the autopsy. That autopsy was performed by Dr. Bryan R. Mitchell.

    Jobless and homeless, Long says he was living in an abandoned truck in Joliet, with his friend David Henker back in the fall of 2000. He says their day usually consisted of heavy drugs and alcohol.

    He says he found Henker dead after a night of wild partying together. He recounted his story in a soft but determined voice, on a steamy July day, inside the office of the director of the Hill Correctional Center. For Long, our interview represented a chance for his to tell his side once and for all.

    "Did you have any reason to kill him?" I asked. "No. I sure didn't," quickly responded Long without any hesitation or uncertainty in his reply. Then came the follow-up question: "How do you think he died?" "Overdose on alcohol or drugs," stated Long in a matter of fact fashion.

    Henker's autopsy did indeed detect cocaine in his system as well as a blood alcohol level of .446, more than five times the legal limit. But Henker's body was badly burned, because their truck cab had caught fire. The deep bruises on Henker's neck led Dr. Mitchell to conclude Henker was strangled. On the other hand, the fingernail scrapings collected from Long, the day after Henker death, failed to detect any evidence of DNA from Henker.

    When Long was arrested, he had a train ticket with him from Joliet to Pontiac in the name of Tom Donnelly. He says it was only after he was taken into custody that he learned their truck cab had caught fire. He speculates that a candle, which he says they had used to light the crack they smoked throughout the day of Henker's death, somehow set the truck cab ablaze.

    If you believe Long's story, that he's an innocent man, who had no reason to kill David Henker, then how do you explain the bruises found on his neck? During trial, Dr. Shaku Teas, a pathologist who testified on behalf on Long, cast blame directly at the feet of Dr. Mitchell. She stated his autopsy procedure were faulty and his conclusions were incorrect. She concluded Henker died as a result of alcohol poisoning, and in her opinion, the manner in which Dr. Mitchell performed Henker's autopsy actually created those bruises on his neck.

    "What is wrong with the procedure?" Long's attorney asked Dr. Teas, according to excerpts of the trial obtained by Fox Chicago News. Her response: "Just as I said, especially if you are trying to diagnose strangulation, blood from the neck organs should be drained, because once you have caused an artificial hemorrhage, because even as you are cutting, you are cutting the skin away from the muscle you are cutting the little veins and vessels. Those vessels will leak. Once you have caused that kind of hemorrhage, then it becomes very difficult to say which is the real hemorrhage and which is an artificial hemorrhage."

    For a second opinion, we reached out to renowned pathologist and Fox News contributor, Dr. Michael Baden. (Baden coincidentally performed the second autopsy on Kathleen Savio, at the request of the Savio

    family).

    "In general, it's recommended all the organs be removed before looking at the neck organs, so that the blood has left the body before looking at any injuries that could be seen as strangulation," said Baden.

    "I don't know if he's innocent or not innocent. I know he was convicted based on bad science," said Chicago attorney Steve Greenberg. Long asked that Greenberg review his options in his case, after losing the first round of his appeal. By a 2-1 margin, the Third District of the Appellate Court of Illinois turned down Long's request for a new trial.

    "When a case goes on appeal, the judges are looking if this verdict (the original decision against Long) is out of hand or irrational... they don't retry the case. They don't re-look at the evidence. They don't see the credibility of the witnesses. They just say, does it smell so bad, we can't sanction it."

    For Greenberg, what's especially noteworthy about Long's case, is that for the first time he can recall, an appellate judge not only dissented -which he says in itself is unusual- but the judge singled out and admonished the pathologist, for the record.

    In criticizing the autopsy performed by Dr. Mitchell, Judge Kent Slater wrote, "This error seriously undermines Mitchell’s conclusion that Henker was strangled, a conclusion that was essential to the state's case. I believe, therefore, that the evidence is so unsatisfactory as to create a reasonable doubt of defendant's guilt."

    Dr. Mitchell never returned our multiple phone calls as well as a fax requesting an interview. But Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil says he's very satisfied with Mitchell's work. As far as we can tell, Mitchell has never been professionally reprimanded on sued, at least not yet.

    Oak Brook based attorney, Kathleen Zellner, says the family of 10-month-old Erin Jackson is contemplating whether to file a law suit against Dr. Mitchell.

    She says they are angry with him, and it all stems from a negligence lawsuit filed against their pediatrician. They believe Erin died from dehydration, but Zellner claims Mitchell classified it a viral illness because he failed to perform a test that detects dehydration. Zeller characterized this as a major forensic blunder.

    "I really haven't had an experience before where somebody missed a basic test....You don't throw away the gun in a murder case. You know, they're certain basic things."

    "Do you think your case will be tougher to prove at trial without this," I asked. "Without question. Without question, it would have been open and shut and we would have settled two years ago," replied Zellner

    When asked about this dehydration test during pre-trial questioning at deposition, even Mitchell admitted, "I do so many cases I don’t remember every report I get, but it is just unusual it's not listed here."

    Greg Long says a more thorough autopsy would have made the difference in his case.

    Since his arrest nine years ago, he's been studying the law in hopes of walking out one day a free man. "Mitchell, I don’t hold any animosity towards him. He just should have done what he was supposed to do right."

    Long says he sends condolences to the family of Kathleen Savio. He also wants to thank them for pressuring authorities in Will County to exhume her body. "Without that connection, I think (Henker's autopsy) would have been covered up....People got to be made aware of this....Maybe there's more than just these two cases?" (his and Savio).

     

    • Outbrain
    Advertisement
    • Suggested Search