Narcotics Evidence Stolen From Medical Examiner's Office

The Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reported a former employee stole narcotics evidence from the agency over the weekend.

Tuesday, October 26th 2010, 11:24 am

By: News 9


Rusty Surette, News 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reported a former employee stole narcotics evidence from the agency over the weekend.

According to a police report, staff noticed an evidence bag ripped open and a bottle of morphine missing on Saturday. The narcotics were to be used as evidence in association with a body that had been brought in to the agency.

Investigators said Michael Griffen, 32, apparently kept his key card after resigning from the medical examiner's office in September and used it to enter the building and take the drugs.

"That should have never happened," said Medical Examiner's Office Spokesperson Cherokee Ballard. "We should have taken away his key card, and I think everybody thought we did that but we didn't. We're changing our policy on that now."

Personnel at the medical examiner's office said Griffen may have known there would be drugs with that particular body because he works for a company that is informed of bodies coming into the office.

Police arrested Griffen on five counts of second-degree burglary.

Critics of the embattled agency said this incident is just one more reason why lawmakers need to overhaul the M.E.'s office.

"So many people have come forward in so many different ways," said Jaye Mendros, an Oklahoma City attorney representing numerous families who have said the medical examiner's office has done them wrong in one way or another.

"Maybe the fact that drugs are floating around there unaccounted for and not locked up securely is an explanation for why we're getting these kind of crazy reports," said Mendros, who also said random drug testing should be mandatory at the office.

"We're working on a policy for that," Ballard said in response to drug testing at the M.E.'s office.

Mendros said she is gathering signatures on a petition that she plans on using to overhaul the agency.

Learn more about Mendros' efforts and petition

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