Oklahoma Board Withdraws Chief Medical Examiner Job Offer, Then Offers It To Interim Chief

Rusty Surette and Jon Jordan, News 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Board of Medicolegal Investigations has withdrawn its job offer to an Arizona man tapped to run the Medical Examiner's Office and offered the position to the Interim Chief Medical Examiner.

The board met in executive session Thursday to review the OSBI's background report for Dr. Philip Keen. The board offered the job to Dr. Keen earlier this month, dependent upon the results of the background check.  Following the session, the board announced it was withdrawing its offer, but did not elaborate as to why.

"I don't know what the results of the background check are, but clearly the board didn't like what was revealed in the background," said M.E.'s Office spokeswoman Cherokee Ballard.

Keen worked as the Chief Medical Examiner in Phoenix, Arizona for nearly 15 years.  At one point during that job, Dr. Keen was criticized for hauling a woman's body 100 miles in the back of his own pickup truck to his office to be examined.

News 9 asked for a copy of Dr. Keen's background check, but was told that it's not public record.

After announcing its decision, the board offered the job to Dr. Andrew Sibley, who has worked at the M.E.'s office for nearly 11 years. Currently, Dr. Sibley is working as the Interim Chief Medical Examiner.

But Dr. Sibley has seen his fair share of troubles too. Before coming to Oklahoma, Dr. Sibley worked in Tucson, Arizona where he was named in a sexual harassment lawsuit that was eventually settled. 

If Dr. Sibley does accept the job, he's got a long road ahead of him. There are vacancies at the M.E.'s office that remain open, because the agency's rough reputation is known across the nation.

"We need new equipment. We need a better facility and more people and so that word spreads throughout the community of pathologists," said Ballard.

If Dr. Sibley accepts the job he'll have to go through the same OSBI background check as Dr. Keen.