Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a letter sent by the Chief Medical Examiner to the Nueces County Judge, obtained via a Public Information Request.
A top leader for the Nueces County Medical Examiner's Office has submitted his letter of retirement, effective immediately.
This letter comes two days after Forrest Mitchell, Director of Operations for the ME's Office, made a presentation to Nueces County Commissioners regarding the fiscal impact of the office conducting out-of-county autopsies.
6 Investigates obtained a copy of letter, submitted to Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Timothy Fagen, in which Mitchell cites that report for his departure.
"As I have said many times before, people don't leave organizations, they leave leaders," Mitchell wrote. "On July 14th, I submitted a signed memorandum to you regarding the cost analysis of performing out-of-county autopsies. This memorandum incorporated different methodologies with significantly differing results. You requested that I remove significant portions of that memorandum before presenting it to Commissioner's Court, which would have likely jeopardized the current doctor commission structure and the out-of-county contract work performed by this office."
Nueces County has 18 interlocal agreements with neighboring counties to provide autopsies, upon request. Medical examiners completing these autopsies receive 40% of the fee collected by the county before any expenses are deducted.
On July 12, Commissioner Brent Chesney asked the office to perform a fiscal analysis of these autopsies.
In the retirement letter, Mitchell cited the report prepared for the commissioner's court as the reason for his departure and the removal of one of two financial analyses from the report.
That original report included the cost to the county to perform these autopsies, and the amounts included in commissions and deposited into the general fund.
According to the original report, the county would be "losing significant funds by continuing to conduct out-of-county autopsies under the current structure."
The report presented to the commissioner's court, however, did not contain this information.
"I am a public servant, who gave up part of his own salary, to facilitate a raise for the Medical Examiner's Office staff earlier this year," Mitchell wrote in the letter. "You, however, have a personal financial interest in the doctor's commission from Nueces County, which influences the official position of this office. As a former law enforcement officer and police executive, I believe your behavior has been unethical and constitutes an improper influence on a public policy which would violate my own personal ethics and integrity, and therefore I can no longer serve under you."
Fagen was hired as the county's Chief Medical Examiner, following an investigation into the office beginning in January 2022 in which Chief ME Dr. Adel Shaker was arrested and charged with multiple violations of the occupation code. Chief Deputy ME Sandra Lyden was also arrested and charged with seven counts of tampering with a government document, 13 counts of violating the medical practice act with financial harm, and one count of misrepresentation regarding entitlement to practice medicine.
When reached by phone on Tuesday, Fagen said he did not have an immediate comment to the allegations in the letter but would provide one later in the day. He later declined to provide a comment.
In a letter to Nueces County Judge Connie Scott, obtained via a Public Information Request, Fagen said that for the presentation to the commissioner's court, Mitchell prepared two methodologies and while Mitchell said one of those methodologies was not included to protect the doctor commission schedule, Fagen determined the first methodology was more accurate.
"I felt that the first methodology was most accurate, as it enables this office to provide services not just for Nueces County, but the surrounding areas as well," Fagen wrote. "My perspective as a public servant is that we should provide quality death investigation and autopsy services to as broad an audience as possible."
He said he believed the methodology selected was the most accurate and that he had made a verbal agreement with Scott to reduce doctor commissions from 40 percent to 10 percent.
Fagen's contract and the issue of out-of-county autopsies are on the agenda for the next commissioner meeting.
"I can't say what the will of the court will be, but it is a serious allegation and we have it on the agenda to discuss at the next meeting," Scott told 6 Investigates.
