Mayhem in the Morgue | Contempt Over a Sticky Note?

Welcome to Mayhem in the Morgue, an unfiltered, often absurd look inside the world of forensic pathology. In this episode, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kendall Crowns recounts the day a routine courtroom testimony over a strangulation case turned into a showdown with a defense attorney, a sticky note, and a very impatient judge. What began as standard expert witness work spiraled toward a contempt charge, a trip to the judge’s chambers, and one critical phone call that kept Dr. Crowns out of county lockup.

 

Highlights

• (0:00) Welcome to Mayhem in the Morgue with Dr. Kendall Crowns
• (1:00) The strangulation case
• (3:00) A sticky note becomes a legal weapon
• (4:00) The defense attorney’s tactics
• (4:30) Choosing between a boss’s wrath and a night in jail
• (6:00) One phone call in the judge’s chambers

 

About the Host: Dr. Kendall Crowns

Dr. Crowns is the Chief Medical Examiner for Travis County, Texas, and a nationally recognized forensic pathologist. He las led death investigations in Travis County, Fort Worth, Chicago, and Kansas, performing thousands of autopsies and testifying in court hundreds of times as an expert witness. A frequent contributor to Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Dr. Crowns brings unparalleled insight into the strange, grisly, and sometimes absurd realities of forensic pathology.

 

About the Show

Mayhem in the Morgue takes listeners inside the bloody, bizarre, and often unbelievable world of forensic pathology. Hosted by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kendall Crowns, each episode delivers real cases from the morgue, the crime scene, and the courtroom. With gallows humor and unflinching detail, Dr. Crowns shares investigations that range from decomposing feet with no bodies to deaths even seasoned pathologists struggle to explain.

 

Connect and Learn More

Learn more about Dr. Kendall Crowns on Linkedin, catch him regularly on Crime Stories with Nancy Grace and follow Mayhem in the Morgue where you get your podcasts.

 

📣 If you liked this episode, don’t keep it to yourself—follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave us a review.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Mayhem any more with your host, doctor Kendall Crown.
So one of the things that I'm required to do
with my job as a medical examiner is testify in court.
I've testified in court hundreds of times, and when I testify,

(00:21):
I am considered an expert witness. I don't necessarily testify
for the prosecution or the defense because I am unbiased,
but often what I have to say in my testimonies
helps the prosecution more than it helps the defense. I've
been told over the years that the medical examiner is
often not necessarily the star witness, but is one of

(00:43):
the only witnesses of credibility. On this particular day, I
was testifying on a homicide case that was a strangulation.
Now there's a little backstory to this case. When I
initially had done the autopsy, it made the cause of
manner of death pending because I was waiting for the
police to get done with their investigation. During this time period,
I went on vacation and while I was gone, the

(01:03):
police had wrapped up their investigation in contacted the office.
They got a hold of the deputy chief, who then
wrote on a sticky note that the police had concluded
their investigation, and when I got back from a vacation,
I talked to the deputy chief. She had told me
that the investigation was over and told me what officer
to call. I called that officer and talked the case

(01:24):
over with him, and then he provided me with the
updated police report, and with that information, the autopsy protocol
and all the other information I had, I closed the
case out as strangulation and homicide. And when the case
was completed, I stuck that sticky note on the inside
jacket of the file folder and handed it over to
medical Records, never thinking anything of it again. A couple

(01:47):
years later, that case goes to trial, and in that
trial there was a particular defense attorney who is known
for her courtroom drama. She loved to do grand hand
gestures and make loud statements and get in your face
while you were testifying and yell at you. One of
her most favorite things to do was bring a forensic
book called Medical Legal Death Investigation by Spits and Fisher,

(02:08):
and she would read passages from it out of context
and ask you if you agreed. Sometimes she'd make you read.
It was all just part of the courtroom drama, and
she was very very good at it, so on this
particular day when I arrived to test fy It, brought
the original file with me. I got sworn in and
began to testify. The prosecution side was very quickly. It
was a very straightforwards regulation case, and when it was

(02:31):
the defense attorney's time to ask questions, the first thing
she started to do was to read passages from Spits
and Fisher about strangulation, as was her norm, And then
at one point she saw that I had the original
file and asked if she could see the file. When
she opened it up, she flipped through the pages, realizing
she had copies of the majority of them. But then

(02:52):
she saw the sticky note, and she saw on the
sticky note that the Deputy Chief had asked me to
come to her office to talk about the case. And
at that point she started saying, well, were you told
how to sign this case out? Are you a puppet
of the deputy chief? Do you not think independently? I
reiterated that I was able to think independently and that

(03:13):
I had come to my conclusions independent of what the
Deputy Chief had said, which she had literally said nothing
about the case. The defense attorney then turned to the
judge and said that she did not have a copy
of the sticky note that was provided to her and
wanted the sticky note to put with her files. The
judge then turned to me and said, you will have
to turn over that sticky note to the defense. And

(03:35):
I said, I am more than happy to have the
sticky note copied, but I wasn't turning over the original
And why did I say this. It was because my
boss of the time, the chief medical Examiner, he had
told me when I first started, you never hand over
any part of the original file to anybody, and if
I ever find out that you did that, I will
have you fired. I took that threat straight to heart,

(03:58):
and I never gave anybody anything from the original file.
I always made sure it was notarized copies that were
handed over, but nothing original. I mean, I still do
that to this day. He really shouldn't hand over anything original.
But I digress. So the defense attorney persisted in saying
she wanted the original sticky note, and the judge said
to me, doctor, you're going to have to turn that over.

(04:19):
And I said, Judge, respectfully, I refuse to turn over
original piece of the file. And the judge said to me,
excuse me, doctor, are you denying my request? I am
the judge, and I said, I understand, sir, but I
will not turn over this original portion of the file.
And he said to me why, and I told him
because my boss told me if I did, I would

(04:40):
be fired. And the judge said to me, do you
understand that you will be held in contempt of court
for not listening to what I've asked you to do,
and that you will spend a night in the county jail.
I said to him with my voice saying, well, I
did not realize that, but I still will not turn
over an original part of the file. Judge said, so

(05:01):
you're more afraid of your boss than you are going
to jail, and I said that is correct. The judge
turned around in his chair and told the bailiff take
him to my chambers. He gets one phone call, and
then he looked at me very sternly, and he said,
you better make it count. And I went to his
chambers and he had a very nicely decorated office. He

(05:22):
had a very comfortable chair that I was not allowed
to sit in, and I was sat down in one
of the more uncomfortable chairs, And then the bailiff picked
up a phone because this was back in the days
of old pushbuton phones, and sat it down in front
of me and said, you better make your call and
make it quick. And I sat there looking at that phone,
and I thought to myself, well, who do I call?

(05:44):
Do I call my wife and tell her, you know,
it looks like I'm going to jail tonight. Do I
call one of my colleagues and say, I think I've
screwed up and I'm going to jail, and could you
come bail me out? Those two phone calls didn't seem
like good solutions, so instead I called my boss that
she medical examiner, and when he answered, I told him
what had occurred. He said to me, my god, man,

(06:06):
you'll miss dinner. Just turn over the piece of the
file and I thanked him hung up. The bailiff took
me back into the courtroom and the judge said, so,
what's your answer, doctor, And I said to him, I
am more than happy to turn over the sticky note
to the defense attorney. And that ended the quandary of
the sticky note. The defense attorney was happy, the judge

(06:26):
was happy. I was happy because I didn't have to
go to jail, because I'll tell you this right now,
I don't think I would have done well in a
county lockup. I'm not a very good dancer and I'm
not very good fighter, so it's best that I didn't go.
So the case, my testimony finished, the case went on,
and eventually the case closed. The individual was still found
guilty of strangulation and homicide. It is probably still in

(06:47):
prison to this day. The drama of the sticky Note
ultimately really didn't matter, and I learned from that to
make sure never to show up in court again with
the original file. I always make sure I have copies
on hand, so I ask for whatever I have in
my hand, I can just gladly hand it to them
and not have to worry about giving up any part
of the original file. That brings us to the end

(07:13):
of the episode. I hope you learned something, and I
hope you were entertained until the next time.