Opinion ID: 796898
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Discovery of the photographs, prosecution, and the alleged cover-up

Text: 27 On January 8, 2001, Robin Imaging Services, a Cincinnati photo-developing studio, contacted the Cincinnati Police Department's vice squad regarding some unusual photographs in its possession that indicated the possible abuse of corpses. Sergeant Lovett of the vice squad dispatched officers to investigate the call. The officers obtained the photographs from Robin Imaging and learned that Condon was the customer who had dropped them off. A search warrant was then executed for Condon's personal photography studio. There the police discovered numerous other corpse photographs as well as a sheet of symbols listing props that appeared in the photographs. This initial investigation led police to the conclusion that the photographs were taken at the Hamilton County Morgue, so Lovett began contacting Morgue personnel. Lovett interviewed all of the Morgue staff members before handing the investigation over to the County Prosecutor's Office. Ultimately, the prosecutor charged Condon with eight counts of gross abuse of a corpse. See State v. Condon, 157 Ohio App.3d 26, 808 N.E.2d 912, 913 (2004). 28 The prosecutor also determined that Tobias had taken a personal interest in Condon's work and had conducted at least two of the autopsies during which Condon took offending photographs. See State v. Tobias, No. C-020261, 2003 WL 21034555, at  (Ohio Ct.App. May 9, 2003). Tobias was the only Coroner's Office staff member criminally charged, but his conviction was later overturned on appeal due to insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had taken affirmative action to aid or abet Condon's corpse abuse. Id. at . 29 Chesher alleges that, upon discovery of the photographs, the County defendants and other County officials began a concerted effort to cover up and minimize any official involvement in Condon's art project. First, Chesher claims that County authorities suspended only Tobias, the lowest-level physician in the Coroner's Office, following the discovery of the photographs. According to Tobias, Gros informed him that he was being suspended in order to protect the county, and Tobias noted that there was already speculation about a civil lawsuit. Tobias contends that, just after the Morgue photograph scandal became public, Parrott had assured him that I know you did nothing wrong. According to Pfalzgraf, Parrott later stated that his hand were tied regarding Tobias's suspension, allegedly because the Prosecutor's Office had insisted on the measure. Furthermore, Tobias claims that Parrot told him that they needed to protect the county, and that he couldn't talk to me because I knew that he knew about the art books. 30 Chesher alleges that the second step of the cover-up consisted of block[ing] public access to facts that demonstrated the involvement of County officials other than Tobias. She claims that in order to limit the County's exposure, the Prosecutor's Office purposefully withheld evidence from the criminal trial of Condon and Tobias, such as the taped conversation between Daly and Utz quoted above. Prosecutors similarly did not introduce into evidence the opinion letter that Parrott had obtained from the Prosecutor's Office advising him that he could go forward with the autopsy video project without obtaining the consent of the decedents' families. 31 Chesher also relies on a letter that Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune sent to the presiding judge during the criminal trial in June of 2002, suggesting that a cover-up may have occurred. In the letter, Portune asserted that the Coroner's Office personnel bore responsibility for the scandal. Portune also relayed to the judge a sworn statement from Condon's wife, Kelly Blank, in which she explains that Utz told her that prosecutors came into the morgue and `openly threatened people' as to what to say and how to testify. Blank claimed that Utz agreed that there was a purposeful plan from the beginning to convict Condon and Tobias and protect higher-ranking officials.