An investigator in the Jacksonville, Fla. Public Defender’s office tells the Daily Caller that he is “skeptical” of the testimony given by Dr. Valerie Rao, the medical examiner called by the prosecution to testify in the George Zimmerman trial on Tuesday.
Rao, a state witness and the chief medical examiner for Florida’s 4th district, called Zimmerman’s injuries “very insignificant” and testified that they were not life threatening. Zimmerman’s face and head injuries are central to his claim of self-defense in the February 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
Rao reviewed photographs of both Zimmerman and Martin as well as a re-enactment video recorded by Zimmerman with Sanford police investigators. In direct examination by state prosecutor John Guy, Rao said that as little as one impact could have caused the injuries to the back of Zimmerman’s head.
On cross-examination, Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara pushed Rao to admit that it was possible that Zimmerman’s injuries could be consistent with several more blows and impacts.
David Douglas, who investigates in the same 4th district out of Jacksonville as Rao, said that he listened to Dr. Rao’s testimony yesterday and said he “was a bit skeptical of her motives and conclusions.”
During testimony Tuesday, O’Mara began his cross-examination by asking Rao if she was given her position by Angela Corey, the state attorney in charge of the Zimmerman second-degree murder trial. Rao said that she was appointed by Florida governor Rick Scott. Several memos sent by Corey do suggest that she pushed to get Rao the medical examiner’s position.
Corey has come under fire for pushing too hard to convict Zimmerman of second-degree murder despite evidence that Martin attacked Zimmerman. Corey was appointed state attorney on the case by Governor Rick Scott after state attorney Norm Wolfinger refused to charge Zimmerman with a crime.
Douglas says that his office, which works with Rao’s examiner’s office on a daily basis, does have some larger concerns about the methodology and legal conclusions reached by Rao in some of the cases they are currently handling.
Douglas told The Daily Caller that he began investigating Rao “because she was refusing to answer fairly straightforward questions about her work history when our attorneys were taking her sworn depositions in homicide cases.”
Douglas says she’d refuse to answer simple questions like “why did you leave your position as Chief Medical Examiner for the 5th District of Florida back in 2003?”
Rao has been in the spotlight before.
Local Florida newspapers have reported complaints filed against Dr. Rao. Co-workers have accused her of various offenses including washing her feet in an autopsy sink, walking barefoot through a bloody crime scene, and calling a former subordinate “Big Mac” due to her weight. She was also accused by a former employee of Middle Eastern descent of making jokes about him being a terrorist.
During a stint working as a medical examiner in Missouri, Rao made news by misidentifying the cause of death of University of Missouri football player Aaron O’Neal. Rao determined that O’Neal collapsed during practice and died from viral meningitis. O’Neal actually had sickle-cell anemia which, the player’s family argued, should have been treated by his coaches since it is known that the hereditary disease has been linked to heat stroke. The family later settled with the University for over $2 million.
During an appeal of a murder conviction of Labrant Dennis, state attorney Joshua Weintraub was accused of coaching Dr. Rao — then a medical examiner — as a witness in the penalty phase of the case. In an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, Dennis’ attorneys argued that in a 1998 memo to Rao before her analysis of the case case was submitted, Weintraub “used subjective terms, varying in degrees of conclusiveness, speculation, and gross exaggeration.”
That email, obtained by The Daily Caller, shows Weintraub telling Rao that it is “of paramount importance that [the victim’s] facial injuries were caused by a staggering 20-25 strikes to the head.”
Weintraub also wrote to Rao “I would like to stress to the jury that [the victim] is alert and aware that she is being beaten.”
Weintraub asked Rao to specifically mention that the victims in the case “languished and died.” Weintraub wrote that the phrase “is a term of art that the judge and jury needs to understand because it helps with our burden of proving the murders as ‘atrocious’ and ‘cruel’.”
The claim, which the court later ruled against, argued that state prosecutors relied on Rao’s testimony despite her not having conducted any of the autopsies of any of Dennis’ alleged victims. Nor did Rao visit the crime scene.
Dennis’ initial attorney, Ronald Guralnick, recalled the memo to Dr. Rao as “very suggestive.” He told The DC that if he’d have known about the memo before trial, he could have impeached Rao’s examination.
Suzanne Keffer, Dennis’ lawyer in the appeals case, recollects that Dr. Rao’s “opinion was really stretching.” Keffer says that Rao would also offer non-medical opinions. Keffer says that prosecutors do tell their witnesses what is expected of their testimony but that Rao’s matched Weintraub’s suggestions “point for point.”
A Jacksonville-area defense attorney said in a phone interview of Rao’s relationship with state attorneys, “it’s sort of home-cooking.” The source added, “obviously Angela [Corey] hand-picked her.”
A source close to the state attorney’s office says Rao and Corey have a “very, very, very close relationship.” The source, who asked not to be identified, called Rao and Corey “very good friends” and “close allies.”
The office for Angela Corey did not respond to requests for comment.