A 'star' in real trials, he now faces a real verdict

PITTSBURGH - A jury is expected to begin deliberations this week in the fraud trial of celebrity pathologist Cyril Wecht.

A 41-count federal indictment charges Wecht with using his former Allegheny County coroner's staff and resources to help him in his lucrative practice as an expert witness in dozens of high-profile cases over the years.

Given that Wecht still makes a living as an expert witness, a conviction on any of the charges could damage his reputation and effectively end the 76-year-old doctor's career in the courtroom.

"From Dr. Wecht's point of view, he can't be convicted on even a single count," said Bruce Ledewitz, a Duquesne University criminal law professor and longtime friend of Wecht's.

Closing arguments are set for tomorrow morning.

The government called 44 witnesses during the seven-week trial; the defense did not put on any. Ledewitz said the defense was swinging for a home run, hoping to see him cleared of all charges.

"If their position is that the entire case is a bunch of nothing, you can't start rebutting individual aspects of it," he said. Not calling defense witnesses "says to the jury, 'We really believe there's nothing to this case.' "

Federal prosecutors say Wecht used his staff and resources to run errands and do other work to benefit his private practice before he was indicted and resigned as coroner in early 2006.

Wecht has earned millions doing autopsies for hire and being an expert witness. He's also a famous author, TV pundit and public speaker on high-profile cases in which he was involved, including the deaths of Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey and Claus von Bulow.

Wecht is also accused of cheating some private clients with phony limousine bills and other bogus travel expenses. Finally, he faces the macabre allegation that he traded as many as 16 unclaimed county morgue cadavers for laboratory space at a Pittsburgh university in recent years.

Wecht's attorneys have argued the indictment is a laundry list of administrative peccadilloes, not federal crimes.

While questioning one witness, defense attorney Mark Rush noted that 27 of the 41 counts involve faxes or mailings that cost the county a total of $3.96.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, want the jury to focus on the thousands of dollars Wecht earned through those private invoices or other correspondence sent by county secretaries on county time.

"I don't for one minute doubt that he was very fast and loose about administrative directives," Ledewitz said. "Having the deputies make trips for him, having the secretary do public and private work is not a crime, necessarily. None of it is a good idea, and I'm not defending it . . . but that's a matter for the county commissioners to call him in and say, 'That's not the way we want the office to run.' "

Judge Arthur Schwab's 56 pages of prepared jury instructions, however, suggest jurors can find Wecht guilty of fraud if they believe he used the mail or county fax machine to violate government ethics by benefiting privately from his office, Ledewitz said.

Wecht beat similar charges brought by state prosecutors in the early 1980s, when he was accused of using county morgue employees to examine slides for his private practice. He was ousted over those charges, but later settled a related suit for $200,000 and returned in 1996 as coroner.

The government never produced a smoking gun for the grisly cadavers-for-lab-space charge in the current case. But documents show Wecht got free lab space and that Carlow University relied on him to supply the cadavers while following all necessary laws to procure the bodies.

But one key witness, then-president of the college, Sister Grace Ann Geibel, testified she knew nothing of the arrangement. Geibel said she invited Wecht to teach autopsy techniques at the school because of his stellar reputation and investigators never even asked her about the 2003 agreement.

"I was just beside myself at the thought that accusation would be made in an indictment or publicly in any way," Geibel testified.