Who Is Dr. Michael Baden, the Coroner ThatExamined Michael Brown? - NBC NewsArticle by NBCNews

Dr. Michael Baden has examined morethan 20,000 dead bodies, but even in acelebrity-spiked career as a forensicpathologist, fiction writer, andtelevision host, few of his reports havedrawn as much attention as the autopsyof Michael Brown, the unarmed blackteenager shot dead by a police officer inFerguson, Missouri.

On Sunday, at the request of Brown’sfamily's legal team, Baden performed afour-hour autopsy on the young man'sbody in a mortuary office turnedmakeshift examining room. The countyof St. Louis already conducted its ownautopsy and the Justice Departmentfollowed with an autopsy of its own.

For now, though, Baden’s word is theonly first-hand expert commentary onwhat might have happened the dayBrown died, a situation that has thrownthe 80-year-old doctor into a placewhere many say he's most comfortable— the spotlight

“Michael never saw a camera he didn’tlike,” said Dr. Lowell Levine, who hasknown Baden since the 1960s, servingwith him as co-director of pathology forthe New York State Police. “He used toyell at me about the press: 'They’re justtrying to make a living — why don’t youhelp them?'”

“He knows how to give a good quote,”added Marion Roach, a writer whohelped Baden write the book “DeadReckoning,” his 2003 memoir-cum-crime saga on the future of forensicscience. “He’s usually right.”

“Michael never saw a camera hedidn’t like.”

On Monday, as President Obama calledfor peace in Ferguson, Roach andLevine praised Baden as someone thenation could trust, the kind ofindependent, yet lion-hearted expertneeded to assist in a case where everyoutcome leads to controversy. Badendid not respond to requests to beinterviewed by NBC News.

“He is absolutely one of the brightestpeople you will ever run across,” saidLevine. “Why Mr. Holder has anindependent autopsy going, I don’tknow, because they’re not going to find

anything different from what Michaelfound.”

“He is a great man,” added Roach.“Michael Baden gets up every daywanting to do good in the world. Hecan’t be bought. He can’t be convincedof the wrong story line. He is a purescientist with a great heart.”

He is also a lifelong public performer.The thrill of crime-solving captivatedhim at New York University in 1960,where he graduated with an MD andwent to work as a pathology resident atBellevue Hospital. He then workedalmost continuously in the office of theNew York City Medical Examiner, risingbriefly into the chief position in 1978,before joining the state police. Heretired to full-time private practice in2005.

Throughout his decades as an unsungpublic servant, unzipping body bagsand working the bone saw, heconsistently found the limelight. At firstit was still within the confines ofgovernment. He chaired the federalcommittee that re-investigated thedeaths of President Kennedy (Badensaid it was Oswald) and Martin LutherKing, Jr. (Baden said it was James EarlRay).

After 1985, however, his work for NewYork State was only part time, and itallowed for private consultation.Suddenly, Baden was released into aworld of six-figure court fees, nationaltelevision audiences, and moody studiohead shots.

Working with journalists, producers,and private legal teams, he investigatedthe deaths of the lost Tsar Nicholas,John Belushi, the president of Poland,Nicole Brown Simpson, Liz McPherson,Kathleen Savio, and, earlier this month,Eric Garner, who died in an allegedchoke hold on the streets of New YorkCity. Along the way, he also hostedHBO’s hit series “Autopsy” and landed acontract — active for more than adecade — as a “Death Correspondent”for FOX News.

He now lives in a sprawling 18th-floorapartment overlooking New York’sMuseum of Modern Art, according tothe New Yorker. He keeps a dog, a red-headed poodle named after the older,smarter, lazier brother of SherlockHolmes. And he writes crime thrillers,with the main characters modeled afterhim and his second wife, Linda Kenney,a high-profile defense attorney.

But Baden’s success has not beenwithout controversy. In 1979, after just11-months as the chief medicalexaminer of New York Mayor Ed Kochfired Baden. He claimed that the hot-shot examiner had lost evidence andworked poorly with prosecutors. Badenlater won $100,000 in a wrongfultermination case, but he was pushedout of the office nonetheless.

“He is very bright, but he has apropensity for giving outstatements and testimony whichare not entirely accurate.”

A few years later, Baden was firedagain, when he worked as the deputymedical examiner in Suffolk County onLong Island, according to the LosAngeles Times. An article in OuiMagazine quoted him giving advice forgetting away with “high tech murder.”He later denied the quote, but one of hisfellow pathologists grumbled about theethics of a medical examiner giving“advice on how to kill people,” andBaden was forced out.

In 2007, Baden was again in the newsfor questionable conduct, this time ashe took the stand in the Phil Spectormurder trial. He had a fresh theory ofhow Spector's alleged victim had died,one that provided room for the defenseto explain some blood on Spector’sjacket. During cross examination, theprosecutor asked Baden if he had anyconflict of interest in this case.

“None that I can think of,” he said,according to the Los Angeles Times.Moments later it was revealed his wifewas one of Spector’s main attorneys.

Dr. Michael Baden testifies before theHouse Assassinations Committee inWashington, D.C., Aug. 15, 1978 as thepanel continues its probe into theslaying of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Baden points to a drawing which showsthe bullet entry area in Dr. King's neck.(Photo: John Duricka / AP file)

“He is very bright,” said a formerclassmate of Baden’s, who ran a big citymedical examiner’s office around thesame time Baden did. “But he has apropensity for giving out statementsand testimony which are not entirelyaccurate.”

This pathologist, who requestedanonymity because of the extraordinarycontroversy of the Brown case, wasparticularly critical of Baden’s work inMissouri. He said Brown was way tooconfident for someone who hadn’t seenx-rays, clothing, or lab reports, “all ofwhich can be important.” It was alsoworrying that Brown had beenembalmed, because that would alter thecolor of the wounds, potentiallythrowing off Baden’s analysis of entryand exit wounds, and his count of sixbullets.

“It could be that only three bullets madethose wounds,” the pathologist said.

As it stands, Baden’s testimony alignedwith the portrait of events provided byMichael Brown’s lawyers. He said therewere “no signs of struggle” and hepredicted that his report would besupported by the official ones thatfollow.

“My impression,” he said, lingering atthe podium until Brown’s lawyerspulled him away, “having done this for

40, 50 years, is that they are going to bevery similar.”

A member of the public wanted to knowwhy the officer involved had yet to bearrested. “Who gets arrested is a

political, district attorney decision,”Baden said, “not a forensic sciencedecision — for good or bad.”

First published August 18 2014, 5:51 PM