PITTSBURGH -- In the federal case against a former Allegheny County medical examiner, Thursday seemed more like a history lesson than a day in court.

The eighth day of testimony against famed pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht went digital with a reenactment of the John F. Kennedy assassination.

Wecht, who has led inquiries into the deaths of Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey and Vince 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.

On Thursday, the jury watched "The Three Sleuths" -- a multimedia production in which Wecht showcases his expertise and oratory.

---

Video: Did 'Sleuths' Help Or Hurt Wecht's Case? Watch Bob Mayo's Report

---

With music playing over old film clips, the "Sleuths" video narration said, "Sherlock Holmes. Charlie Chan. Columbo. The greatest sleuths have solved the most baffling of crimes." It pointed out that they were fiction.

Then, jazz music played over video of Wecht and two other famed forensic experts, Dr. Henry Lee and Dr. Michael Baden.

There's also video of a Wecht lecture on the JFK assassination and the single-bullet theory.

In it, Wecht narrates the Zapruder film that captured Kennedy's shooting during the presidential motorcade in Dallas in 1963. He uses members of the audience to reenact the seating in the presidential limousine and analyze the single-bullet theory.

In the video, Wecht dubs the bullet as "the magic bullet" -- a projectile whose path kept being revised by investigators to satisfy their changing theories.

After the jury watched the video, defense attorney Jerry McDevitt asked witness Kathy McCabe, chief administrative assistant at the medical examiner's office, if Wecht has a passion for his work and had been a good coroner. McCabe replied, "Yes."

Then, prosecutors selected a different portion of the video for the jury to view.

In that part of the video, the narrator talks about grave robbers and body snatchers, and Baden says bodies were once dug up in cemeteries and sold to medical schools, as he explains the history of the autopsy.

Baden, in the video, says bodies are even more valuable these days and body parts can be sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Testimony for the day ended late Thursday afternoon. The trial resumes on Monday.

---

Related Links:
More County News

Get RSS | E-Mail Alerts

---