Pathologist Helps clear N.J. cop in Wife's Death

MAYS LANDING - A police officer accused of suffocating his wife was cleared Wednesday after prosecutors acknowledged she died of coronary artery failure.

A medical examiner had called her death a homicide and listed the cause of death as asphyxiation.

"It was the most disgraceful thing," said Officer James Andros III. "I can't imagine how it ever happened."

Andros, 34, was charged with murder in the March 31, 2001, death of his wife, Ellen, who was found dead by her husband after he returned home from a night of drinking with friends about 4 a.m.

Three weeks later, the 12-year veteran of the Atlantic City Police Department was charged with murder. His wife's parents won custody of their daughters, 3 and 5 at the time. The murder charge was based on findings by Assistant Atlantic County Medical Examiner Elliot Gross, who told prosecutors after conducting an autopsy that the 31-year-old mother died of asphyxia after being smothered. But well-known forensic pathologist Michael Baden, who was called in by Andros' lawyer John Bjorklund, found evidence of coronary artery problems in examining tissue samples from the victim. That, in turn, prompted prosecutors to seek a second opinion from Dr. Donald Jason, a former county medical examiner who now teaches at Wake Forest University medical school.

In a report Monday, he concluded that Ellen Andros had suffered bleeding in the coronary artery, which closed from the pressure and caused her heart to stop, Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey Blitz said.

On Wednesday, First Assistant Prosecutor Murray Talasnik filed a motion to dismiss the murder count against Andros and Superior Court Judge Michael Donio granted it. A jubilant Andros said later he harbored no bitterness, and his first priority would be regaining custody of Megan, 7, and Elizabeth, 5.

Andros, suspended without pay after being charged, will be reinstated immediately, Atlantic City Police Chief Arthur Snellbaker said.

http://www.northjersey.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=5892005

N.J. coroner's latest mistake may be his worst
JOHN CURRAN

PLEASANTVILLE - When ex-Beatle John Lennon was shot to death in 1980, Dr. Elliot Gross performed the autopsy.

When 15-year-old Martha Moxley was found dead under a Greenwich, Conn., tree in 1975, Gross was the coroner who handled the body.

And when a New York subway graffiti artist named Michael Stewart died in police custody, Gross determined he died of cardiac arrest; in fact, Stewart died of injuries suffered while in custody.

Gross, 68, is no stranger to controversy. In a 40-year career that included more than 7,000 autopsies, his work in high-profile cases has frequently come under attack.

His latest error may be his biggest.

Gross determined that Ellen Andros, 31, found dead in her home last year, had been suffocated, and prosecutors charged her police officer husband with murder. James Andros III lost his job as an Atlantic City police officer, and his in-laws got custody of his two young daughters.

On Wednesday, Andros, 34, was cleared after another forensic pathologist determined that Ellen Andros actually died of coronary heart failure.

"He was flat-out wrong," said John Bjorklund, Andros' lawyer.

Gross has yet to talk publicly about the case. He did not return telephone calls Thursday.

"I don't know if I'm always involved in controversy or if it follows me," he said in an interview last year.

The son of a pediatrician, Gross grew up in Manhattan and attended medical school, where an elective course steered him toward pathology.

After working in the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, he served as chief medical examiner for the state of Connecticut from 1970 to 1979 and then in the same capacity for New York City until 1987, when he was fired.

After that, he worked for Lake County, Ind., before settling in southern New Jersey in 1995 as the coroner for Cape May and Cumberland counties.

But controversy has followed him:

In the 1983 Stewart case, he attributed the 25-year-old Brooklyn man's death to cardiac arrest, ruling out physical injury as a cause. An investigation later revealed transit police had used excessive force. Three were indicted but never convicted.

In New Jersey, Gross' work came into question in the case of Tracy Thomas, whose death in a 1997 traffic accident has never been explained. Gross said she died of blunt-force trauma when her car skidded off a snowy road and into a utility pole.

But a longtime rival, Dr. Michael Baden, was hired by the Ford Motor Co. after her husband blamed an exploding air bag for her death and sued the company. Baden said Mrs. Thomas was strangled, although no one has ever been charged in her death.

In the Andros case, Gross - called to the scene because Atlantic County Medical Examiner Hydow Park was unavailable - ruled on the spot that she had been suffocated, Andros' attorneys said. In a report Monday, a forensic pathologist hired by the state concluded Ellen Andros died naturally, as the result of bleeding in the coronary artery caused by a rare condition.

Confronted with the diagnosis, Gross immediately admitted his mistake and agreed to amend the death certificate, said to Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey Blitz.

"Suffocation is a very difficult diagnosis to make, and in the absence of confessions and observations, it's not a diagnosis that can be made grossly, microscopically, chemically or in any other way," said Dr. Cyril Wecht, a well-known forensic pathologist familiar with Gross and his work.

"I don't know how he arrived at it in the first place, and I'm surprised he backed off it so quickly," said Wecht, who has known Gross for years.

It wasn't clear Thursday whether Gross would face official sanction. Andros plans a civil suit against those he believes are responsible for wrongfully charging him.

But first, the 34-year-old patrolman plans to seek custody of his 7- and 5-year-old daughters. His late wife's parents intend to fight him, said their lawyer, Marissa Costello.

Asked if they still believe Andros did it, she said: "That's what they've been told, and to be untold a thing like that, after 1½ years, you can't just turn that off. It's a horrible situation all the way around."

Andros' supporters feel the same.

"They tore out this guy's heart," said neighbor John Goodman, 58. "He couldn't grieve for his wife, he was so worried about getting convicted, getting his children back, clearing his name. He was in a lot of emotional pain."

Medical examiner to fight incompetence charge

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

BY JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press

A mistake that led to a wrongful murder charge against a police officer may end up costing medical examiner Elliot Gross his career.

Gross was granted an unpaid leave of absence from his $142,500-a-year job as coroner for Cape May and Cumberland counties yesterday after state officials said he failed to prove his competence in remedial tests.

Gross, 69, a former chief medical examiner for New York City, intends to fight the sanctions.

"He was quite shocked, quite devastated," said Cape May County Administrator Stephen O'Connor.

The tests had been ordered by the state Medical Examiner in February in response to Gross' handling of the 2001 death of Ellen Andros. The 31-year-old was found dead in her Pleasantville home by her husband, Atlantic City Police Officer James Andros III.

Gross, who performed the autopsy, concluded she died of asphyxiation after being suffocated. Andros then was charged with murder and suspended from his job.

But defense experts and later a pathologist hired by the state found that Mrs. Andros died of spontaneous coronary artery dissection, a rare ailment.

Gross admitted his mistake last December. The charge against Andros was dropped and he was reinstated to his job. Andros has since filed a civil suit against Gross, Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey Blitz and others involved in his case.

Gross, meanwhile, was fired as an assistant medical examiner for Atlantic County and censured by the state, which said his work on the Andros case constituted professional incompetence.

As part of the censure, he was banned from performing unsupervised autopsies and ordered to perform 20 autopsies under the supervision of a state-designated forensic pathologist, as well as observing 20 others.

He did the work but it didn't measure up, acting State Medical Examiner John Krolikowski told Gross in a letter Friday.

Gross intends to fight the state, which he believes treated him unfairly, according to attorney Russell Lichtenstein.

"We are absolutely committed to fighting this in whatever court or agency may have jurisdiction," Lichtenstein said. "We are going to pursue all avenues of relief available to Dr. Gross, who does not believe he was treated fairly from the commencement of this process."

_________________________________

Parents say troubled coroner bungled autopsy on daughter

Pathologist finds signs of homicide in death of Cape May woman

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

BY JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press

After Beth Ann Miller died mysteriously, medical examiner Elliot Gross concluded that a heart condition killed her.

But when her parents saw bruises on the head of their 31-year-old daughter later, they suspected murder.

Now, Gross' fall from grace has reopened old wounds for Miller's parents, who believe the coroner botched her autopsy and want the case reopened.

"I feel as though they've proven what we've been telling them all along," said Miller's mother, Sandy Miller, 60, of Blandon, Pa. "We said right away that we felt he made a big mistake with our daughter's autopsy Just knowing that he made these mistakes, they should reopen our daughter's death."

Gross, 69, who had a rocky eight-year tenure as New York City's chief medical examiner before being fired in 1987, took an unpaid leave of absence from his job as Cape May County medical examiner last week, after failing to prove his competence in state-ordered remedial testing.

The tests were ordered in response to Gross' mistake in the 2001 autopsy of Ellen Andros of Pleasantville. Gross concluded she was suffocated, leading prosecutors to charge an Atlantic City police officer with murder.

Officer James Andros III was eventually exonerated, but the error and Gross' subsequent failure to pass the remedial tests caught the attention of the Millers.

At 6:46 a.m. on May 28, 2000, paramedics dispatched to a Stone Harbor condominium found Miller unconscious in bed. She died later at a hospital.

Gross attributed her death to cardiac arrest brought on by mitral valve prolapse, a heart abnormality with which she had been diagnosed.

He noted the bruises in his autopsy report but said they weren't fatal injuries. There was no reason to believe she was killed, according to Gross.

Miller's parents believed otherwise.

They consulted medical experts, lobbied Cape May County officials for a review by an independent pathologist and held a rally on the steps of the county courthouse, showing graphic autopsy photographs of their daughter.

A forensic pathologist retained by the family, Neil Hoffman, of Reading, Pa., reviewed Gross' autopsy report, photographs of the body, Miller's medical records and investigative reports on her death.

Hoffman, who never examined the body, concluded that Miller suffered two or three blows to the face before dying and that the heart problem was probably not the cause of death.

"In the meantime, it is my recommendation that the investigation of this case be reopened in that the possibility that it is a homicide is relatively high," Hoffman told the Millers in a June 2001 letter.

The Millers say their daughter's case cries out for a second look.

"I've begged them to hire an independent medical examiner to review our daughter's case," said Sandy Miller. "Everyone tells us we should hire (noted pathologist) Michael Baden, but we can't afford it. But we feel this was mishandled from day one."

Acting Cape May County Prosecutor J. David Meyer said he had no plans to reopen the Miller case.

"I have yet to see any basis to have those findings independently reviewed," he said.

Meyer said the Millers had refused to provide Hoffman's written report on the death or give Hoffman permission to release it to Cape May County authorities.

Doing so would be a prerequisite to considering reopening the case, Meyer said.

"There was facial bruising, but there were alternative explanations. She went through some resuscitation efforts and some of that can get physically rough. It's not uncommon for there to be bruising," Meyer said.

Hoffman declined comment on the case yesterday.

Gross stands by his conclusions, attorney Russell Lichtenstein said.

"Dr. Gross did a comprehensive investigation into Miss Miller's death, which included an investigation that discovered there was some family history of a very similar heart condition," Lichtenstein said.
___________

Parents want case of woman's death reopened

Tuesday, August 5, 2003
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE - After Beth Ann Miller died mysteriously, medical examiner Dr. Elliot Gross concluded that a heart condition killed her.

But when her parents saw bruises on the head of their 31-year-old daughter later, they suspected murder.

Now, Gross' fall from grace has reopened old wounds for Miller's parents, who believe the coroner botched her autopsy and want the case reopened.

"I feel as though they've proven what we've been telling them all along," said Miller's mother, Sandy Miller, 60, of Blandon, Pa.

"We said right away that we felt he made a big mistake with our daughter's autopsy. Just knowing that he made these mistakes, they should reopen our daughter's death."

Gross, 69, who had a rocky eight-year tenure as New York City's chief medical examiner before being fired in 1987, took an unpaid leave of absence from his job as Cape May County medical examiner last week, after failing to prove his competence in state-ordered remedial testing.

The tests were ordered in response to Gross' mistake in the 2001 autopsy of Ellen Andros of Pleasantville. Gross concluded she was suffocated, leading prosecutors to charge an Atlantic City police officer with murder.

Officer James Andros III was eventually exonerated, but the error and Gross' subsequent failure to pass the remedial tests caught the attention of the Millers.

At 6:46 a.m. on May 28, 2000, paramedics dispatched to a Stone Harbor condominium found Miller unconscious in bed. She died later at a hospital.

Gross attributed her death to cardiac arrest brought on by mitral valve prolapse, a heart abnormality with which she had been diagnosed.

He noted the bruises in his autopsy report but said they weren't fatal injuries. There was no reason to believe she was killed, according to Gross.

Miller's parents believed otherwise.

They consulted medical experts, lobbied Cape May County officials for a review by an independent pathologist, and held a rally on the steps of the county courthouse, showing graphic autopsy photographs of their daughter.

A forensic pathologist retained by the family, Dr. Neil Hoffman of Reading, Pa., reviewed Gross' autopsy report, photographs of the body, Miller's medical records, and investigative reports on her death.

Hoffman, who never examined the body, concluded that Miller suffered two or three blows to the face before dying and that the heart problem was probably not the cause of death.

"In the meantime, it is my recommendation that the investigation of this case be reopened in that the possibility that it is a homicide is relatively high," Hoffman told the Millers in a June 2001 letter.

The Millers say their daughter's case cries out for a second look.

"I've begged them to hire an independent medical examiner to review our daughter's case," said Sandy Miller.

"Everyone tells us we should hire [noted pathologist] Michael Baden, but we can't afford it. But we feel this was mishandled from Day One."

Acting Cape May County Prosecutor J. David Meyer said he has no plans to reopen the Miller case.

"I have yet to see any basis to have those findings independently reviewed," he said.

Meyer said the Millers had refused to provide Hoffman's written report on the death or give Hoffman permission to release it to Cape May County authorities.

Doing so would be a prerequisite to considering reopening the case, Meyer said.

"There was facial bruising, but there were alternative explanations. She went through some resuscitation efforts and some of that can get physically rough. It's not uncommon for there to be bruising," Meyer said.

Hoffman declined to comment on the case Monday.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/US/2020_wrongedcop030822.html

Falsely Accused
N.J. Cop Charged With Killing Wife,
But Was She Really Murdered?

Aug. 23— In the early hours of March 31, 2001, Jim Andros returned to his Pleasantville, N.J., home after a night out at an area bar. Andros said his wife, Ellen, was seated in front of her computer. But he quickly discovered something was wrong.

Watch the full story on 20/20 at 10 p.m.

"I just remember touching her shoulders, and there was none of the normal resistance there would be in a living person," Andros said.

Ellen wasn't breathing, and Jim, a 12-year veteran with the Atlantic City Police Department, said he was unable to revive her. He called 911 for an ambulance, but when the emergency team arrived, there was nothing to be done.

Andros' wife was dead at the age of 31, and he was a widower with two young daughters.

Under the Suspicion of Family and Friends

Andros called Ellen's parents with the tragic news. Distraught and in shock, Andros received another blow when his mother-in-law arrived at the house. According to the police report, Ellen's mother immediately confronted him in front of officers, saying, "What did you do to her? Did you kill her?"

"It almost knocked me down," Andros said. "I couldn't believe that she could say something like that to me."

But she did, and before long police on the scene were peppering Andros with questions of their own.

When the medical examiner arrived on the scene shortly after 9 a.m., he noticed small red marks on Ellen's face. They are called "petechial hemorrhages" and they're caused by a lack of oxygen — often seen when someone has been strangled or suffocated. Soon, Andros found himself hauled in for questioning.

Andros cooperated, and didn't even wait until he retained a lawyer before answering their questions. "I knew there was no homicide," he said. "And more importantly, I know that I certainly didn't hurt my wife."

While Andros was questioned by detectives, the medical examiner, Dr. Elliot Gross, was conducting the autopsy. His findings: Ellen Andros' death was a "homicide." The cause, according to Gross, was "suffocation."

According to Andros, police talked to him as if they were convinced of his guilt. Andros said a sergeant told him, "I should realize that I had been out at a bar and I had some drinks and I blacked out and killed my wife, and they had already proven this, and to make it easier on myself, [I should] just confess to it. I could shave some time off my sentence."

Jim Andros was the only suspect in his wife's death. And it wasn't just the cops who suspected him. Mary and Charles Bokagiannis, once close friends of Andros, also suspected that he had killed his wife.

"My first reaction was at that time was, 'Oh my God, Jim did it,' " said Mary Bokagiannis.

Over the years, the couple's friendship with Andros had eroded, in large part, they say, because of how he treated Ellen.

Julie Goldberg, Ellen's best friend, says Ellen "suffered" in her marriage to Andros. Ellen's friends say when Andros and Ellen were dating, they were the picture of the loving couple; but after they were married, she says, that changed. Later, she and other friends told authorities that Ellen suspected her husband of infidelity.

Jim Andros denies he cheated on his wife, but Ellen's friends acknowledge she was having an extramarital affair — and Goldberg says that just two weeks before her death, Ellen asked her to help her find a divorce lawyer.

Andros denies that his marriage to Ellen was troubled. "We had a great marriage," he said, "Nobody has a perfect marriage, but I told those people right from the start that there's never been any kind of physical violence or mental cruelty."

After Ellen died, her parents went to court to take the kids away from Jim. To make their case, Ellen's family and some of her friends submitted sworn statements about Jim. They said he was "abusive and neglectful" … that he was "violent and belligerent when drunk." And that Ellen said he once "pointed" a "loaded gun in her face …." Andros disputes the accusations of Ellen's family and friends. "The things they say are just disgusting," he said. "And they're untrue."

Not only were Ellen's parents given temporary custody of their grandchildren, Meagan and Elizabeth, they also went to court and were also granted total control over their daughter's funeral. In fact, they didn't even tell Jim when Ellen would be buried. He says he found that out by reading it in the newspaper.

When he went to pay his last respects, Andros said, "I had people standing in line calling me a murderer."

But hurt feelings were the least of his problems.

Over the course of the homicide investigation, the staff of Jeffrey Blitz, the chief prosecutor in Atlantic County, N.J., interviewed Ellen's family and friends and learned about her affair. Coupled with the fact that there was no forced entry into the Andros home on the night of Ellen's death, prosecutors viewed Jim Andros as having both a motive and the opportunity to kill his wife.

"He was the only person that had access to his wife from 1:30, when we knew she was alive, until 4:30 when we knew she was dead. And he was there when rescue arrived," Blitz said.

Less than a month after his wife's death, Andros was charged with her murder. He lost custody of his two daughters, was suspended from his job, and was taken to the same County Jail where, as a cop, he had taken suspects. Now, Andros faced the very real possibility that, if convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

But Jim Andros' family refused to believe he had murdered his wife. They immediately hired a retired veteran homicide detective named Bill Taggart to investigate Ellen's death. His first stop was the Andros home and right away, he says, some things just didn't add up.

Taggart said there didn't appear to be any real evidence showing that Ellen had struggled with an attacker.

He took photos of Jim Andros to document that there were no significant marks or bruises on him. He also looked at the coroner's report which, he says, showed no signs of a struggle on Ellen's body.

To Blitz, the fact there were no signs of struggle did not release Andros from suspicion.

"Jim Andros was a 200-pound, physically fit police officer. His wife is 110 pounds. The absence of evidence of a struggle was a consideration for us, but still, in light of the opinion of the medical examiner, we commenced this as a homicide," he said.

Building a Defense

Matt Portella and John Bjorklund, Andros' defense attorneys, felt that the medical examiner had prematurely jumped to a homicide conclusion before considering the possibility of natural causes.

"We decided early on, that not only were we going to have to disprove the state's theory of the case, but we were probably going to have to be able to demonstrate to a jury what was the cause of death," Bjorklund said.

The first line of defense: Andros' alibi. He was with his father, who is also an Atlantic City cop. They met at a Brigantine, N.J., hangout called the Beach Bar.

Police investigators interviewed the bar owner, Joe Takach, and they talked to several customers who were there that night. They confirmed that Jim Andros was at the bar from around 9 p.m. to about 4 a.m.

The prosecution didn't dispute Andros' whereabouts. According to the prosecution theory, Andros murdered his wife sometime between 4 and 4:30 a.m.

"The medical examiner was not able to give us a precise time of death," Blitz said.

If Andros' lawyers could prove Ellen died before 4 a.m., Jim would be in the clear. So they hired renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden to try to determine the time of Ellen Andros' death and also, if possible, the cause.

"When I first read all the reports, there was something that didn't make sense about the timing of the death," Baden said.

When the rescue squad arrived at the Andros home at 4:31 a.m., emergency medical personnel noted that Ellen's "extremities were cold and there were signs of lividity," which means blood already had settled in the lower portion of her body.

To Baden, that bolstered Andros' case. "The pooling of blood would tell you she was dead for at least an hour or two," he said.

And there was another bit of forensic evidence that led Baden to conclude the time of Ellen's death was actually hours before her husband had come home.

"Her mother had said they'd eaten the night before, finished around 10 o'clock. When the autopsy was done, the autopsy showed a lot of undigested food in the stomach," Baden said.

He said the stomach contents can help determine the time of death.

"God doesn't play dice with digestion," Baden said. "When we eat something, in normal people who are healthy, it goes in our stomach and within two, three, four hours most of it is digested. So when we find somebody who's dead with a lot of undigested food in the stomach, that means they had to die within a few hours after eating the material."

Prosecutor Blitz was unswayed by that claim. "Stomach contents is also not a precise science in trying to figure out time of death," he said.

But Baden felt this forensic evidence proved Andros could not have killed his wife. "My opinion would be that the death occurred — whatever the reason for the death — the death occurred close to about 2 a.m."

Ellen, who was found dead at her computer desk, had sent an e-mail at 1:48 a.m. Baden believed that Ellen had died shortly after sending that last e-mail.

If Andros was at the Beach Bar until 4 a.m., he couldn't have killed Ellen.

Crucial Clue Uncovered Under Microscope

But if Jim Andros didn't kill Ellen, how did she die?

Just two months before Andros' trial was to start, Baden figured it out. He was allowed to visit the morgue to examine some of Ellen's remains. Suddenly, one small piece of tissue caught his attention. It turned out be the most important piece of the forensic puzzle, and it completely changed the case.

"I found the coronary artery sharply, severely narrowed by blood," Baden said.

He said he thought this could be a natural cause for Ellen Andros' death.

When Baden looked at the artery under a microscope, he knew for sure. Ellen Andros had died of a rare heart condition called spontaneous coronary artery dissection.

"This is a condition that happens suddenly and naturally and unpredictably. Suddenly, there could be a hemorrhage in the coronary artery and a person can die," Baden said. "So this is a form of a heart attack — not a homicide."

But what about those little red petechial hemorrhages on Ellen's face, which the coroner said were signs of suffocation?

Baden said those hemorrhages can suggest the possibility of asphyxiation, or suffocation, or strangulation — that those are causes that could be considered when you do the autopsy. "But if you find nothing else," Baden said, "then you can't make a diagnosis of homicide."

In other words, the medical examiner made a huge mistake during the autopsy.

And so, a year and a half after Jim Andros was indicted for the murder of his wife, prosecutors dismissed all charges against him.

"Now we get to do what we should have been able to do from day one — and just properly mourn the passing of my wife and move on as a family," Andros said.

Andros' case presents a frightening example of how a single mistake can lead to a man facing charges, not only for a crime he didn't commit, but for a crime that never occurred.

"Clearly, if the mistake of the medical examiner was not discovered, this defendant could have been convicted," Blitz said.

Putting a Life Back Together

With the murder charges dismissed, Jim Andros began reassembling his life. He got his job back with the Atlantic City Police Department, with back pay. And he got his kids back, too. And some of Ellen's friends, who once believed Jim was a murderer, are now willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

If Jim Andros is angry about what's happened, certainly that would be understandable; but he doesn't seem to dwell on it.

"I am hurt. I'm very hurt. I can't pretend not to be. But it's my job now to just be the best person I can be," he said. "If I can't be the best person I can be, then I can't be the best father I can be."

Gross, the medical examiner who handled Ellen Andros' autopsy, declined to be interviewed for this story. But he released a statement in which he acknowledged that he missed the rare heart condition that is "now recognized with having caused Ellen Andros' death."

He also states, in part: "My oversight … has evoked justifiable criticism. The error contributed to the indictment and aborted criminal proceeding and I will regret it for many years to come."

As a result of this case, Gross has been banned from conducting autopsies in New Jersey, a decision he is appealing.

As for Jim Andros, he has filed a civil suit seeking damages against Gross, Blitz, and other parties connected with the prosecution against him.

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