How Is This Not Harassment?
Monday, March 9th, 2009
I just love the forensic crime dramas on television, in which the smart and remarkably good-looking scientists determine from one hair that the victim died of blunt force trauma, drove a red 2007 Corolla and once ate a tuna sandwich in Des Moines.
As I watch these dramas I do assume the limits of real-world forensic science are stretched a bit, however.
The Chrysler company sent a process server to a funeral to keep a body from being buried in the interests, Chrysler says, of forensic science. The funeral was that of Harold St. John of New Jersey, who died February 28 of mesothelioma. St. John believed his deadly lung disease was caused by exposure to asbestos-laden auto brake linings he used to install in the 1950s and early 1960s. He sued Honeywell and Chrysler. The trial was scheduled to begin today.
Mr. St. John’s lungs were biopsied while he was still alive, confirming that he did have mesothelioma. Chrysler says it needs more tissue samples “to establish the cause of asbestos-related disease.” So they’re going to try to prove that the asbestos causing Mr. St. John’s death was not the same asbestos he breathed in almost 50 years ago while working with brake linings?
Chrysler’s process server watched the funeral and served the warrant on the funeral director before the coffin was lowered into the ground. Mr. St. John’s family is bewildered and outraged. His daughter Debbie Eisenbrey called it “cold.” “Chrysler’s kicking us when we’re down,” she said. “It’s not fair.”
Harold St. John’s body remains unburied.
Sources:
Lou Young CBS News “Grave Robbers: Chrysler Subpoenas Body at Funeral”
Barbara O’Brien
