Washington County coroner claims coercion by DA in filing fraudulent death certificate - Observer-Reporter
Warco accuses Walsh of playing politics with autopsy report
The Washington County coroner is accusing District Attorney Jason Walsh of coercing him into filing a fraudulent death certificate for a Peters Township infant – who died under suspicious circumstances – for political purposes ahead of the 2023 election.
Shortly after the death of 11-week-old Sawyer Clarke on May 24, 2022, the district attorney’s office asked Coroner Timothy Warco to take jurisdiction of the case despite the boy dying at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, giving the authority to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office.
In a sworn affidavit Warco gave Friday, the coroner claims Walsh and First Assistant District Attorney Leslie Mylan used their authority to persuade a Washington County judge to move jurisdiction of Sawyer’s body back to Washington County on the false premise that he died at the Peters Township home where he allegedly suffered the fatal injuries. The affidavit states that Walsh was concerned that Allegheny County’s medical examiner would not rule the boy’s death a homicide – it ultimately ruled the manner of death as undetermined – so he wanted Warco to conduct the report to ensure the finding was a homicide.
“You know that I need this to be a homicide. I need it to win an election,” Warco recalled Walsh telling him about the reasons to have the body returned to Washington County.
The Atlantic Center for Capital Representation in Philadelphia filed the...
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