Cobb Medical Examiner to step down in September
Cobb County Chief Medical Examiner Brian Frist, whose office has been mired in citizen complaints and a critical internal audit earlier this year, has notified the county that he will step down from his position Sept. 30.
Frist’s annual contract is worth $475,500 and allowed him use of county facilities to perform private autopsies at no cost to him.
The internal audit found that Frist was not being supervised by County Manager David Hankerson or county commissioners, and without that monitoring the county has no way of knowing that Frist performs county work first.
“The private use of the county facilities for profit could expose the county to liabilities in connection with performing those services,” the audit says. “In addition, without proper monitoring … the county cannot be assured that its cases are prioritized.”
Frist issued a two-sentence letter to Hankerson saying he is retiring and “as a result I resign my position as Chief Medical Examiner on Sept. 30, 2014.”
About the Author
Dan Klepal is editor of the local government team, supervising nine reporters covering county and municipal governments and metro Atlanta. Klepal came to the AJC in 2012, after a long career covering city halls in Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky. He has covered Gwinnett and Cobb counties before spending three years on the investigative team.
