PITTSBURGH -- According to testimony Wednesday in federal court, former Allegheny County coroner Cyril Wecht's errands were more important than his job.

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Deputies from the coroners office said corpses were frequently left in public view , because they had to run errands for Wecht before getting to the scene.

The deputies who served Wecht painted a harsh picture of the former coroner at his trial on Wednesday.

Wecht, who has led inquiries into the deaths of Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey and Vincent Foster among others, is accused of using his government staff as bookkeepers, secretaries, couriers and gofers for his family and his private pathology practice.

Prosecutors said Wecht, 76, illegally used the county workers to cut costs in his private practice, which grossed nearly $9 million from 1997 through 2004. He never made more than $64,000 a year as county coroner.

The two deputies told the jurors on Wednesday about times they were told to leave dead bodies waiting in public until their errands for Wecht were done.

Then-coroner's deputy Richard Patrick Lorah testified that errands for Wecht took priority over retrieving the body of a woman whose car plunged backward several stories from a parking garage.

"Yeah, he could care less about the deceased victims in this county," said Lorah. "It's really a crime. It will all come out in court."

Lorah said the so-called "Wecht detail" took priority.

"He said, 'Let her lay,'" Lorah said.

Lorah claims Wecht told him, "They're not going anywhere."

There was also a case of suicide in which a man publicly hanged himself in Plum Borough.

Employee Darlene Craig testified supervisors told her to leave the body hanging in public until her errands for Wecht were complete, which meant deliveries to the Wecht law firm, Duquesne University and the office of Wecht's personal attorney.

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