As discussed in previous posts (see September 24, 2016, January 29, 2019, and April 30, 2020), John Wolfe, a N.Y.S.P. Senior Investigator, failed to follow through on information about the forehead injury revealed to me in 2005 by Mark’s attending physician at the burn unit and to Atty. Michael Kelly by an emergency worker who was on the scene the night of the truck fire. In spite of the importance of their information, no one from the State Police interviewed either individual.
As requested by Kelly, Wolfe obtained my brother’s medical records (through a subpoena), but he insisted that he could find nothing in the medical records about the forehead wound (or additional soft-tissue damage to the left side of Mark’s face also observed by his attending physician). However, Wolfe added that he could not be sure about the absence of information concerning soft-tissue swelling because Dr. Edward Piotrowski’s handwriting was difficult to decipher. N.Y.S.P. Lt. Allen also later informed me that the CT scan of Mark’s head ordered by Dr. Piotrowski had not been examined by Wolfe or any other N.Y.S.P. official (see post of March 31, 2020). Given that Wolfe is presumably not trained to read a CT scan, why didn’t he ask a N.Y.S.P. forensic scientist to interpret it for him?
This post raises another issue related to Wolfe’s examination of the medical records. Dr. Piotrowski had informed me that Mark’s medical records would include not only the CT scan but also a report by Starflight Medevac, which airlifted my brother from the scene of the truck fire in Great Valley to the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo. Lt. Allen acknowledged that the State Police had not looked at the CT scan, but neither he nor Wolfe even referred to the (presumed) report by the Starflight Medevac emergency personnel.That report would certainly have included the Starflight Medevac team’s observations about my brother’s condition and the treatment they had given him. As I was informed, the Medevac workers arrived quickly. Mark would have appeared much as he had to the emergency workers on the scene, two of whom acknowledged seeing the wound on his forehead. At least initially, then, the Starflight Medevac team presumably saw my brother before generalized swelling set in. Did they document anything about any injuries to Mark’s forehead or the left side of his face?
The only official reference to Starflight Medevac comes in the N.Y.S.P. report on the investigation into my brother’s death (see the report through a link on this blog). There, Edward Kalfas, the lead New York State Police investigator in the case, mentions in his entry for 9/24/03 that he spoke with a member of Starflight Medevac. The name of the individual is redacted, that is blacked out, in the copy of the report that I obtained request from the Albany office of the N.Y.S.P. through a FOIL after Edward Sharkey, then Cattaraugus County District Attorney, informed Atty. Tony Tanke that he would not allow me access to the police report.
According to Kalfas’s entry, the individual from Starflight Medevac “stated the victim was unable to communicate at any time during treatment.” Kalfas mentions nothing more about his conversation with this individual. Did the investigator not follow up with any additional questions about Mark’s condition and the treatment administered to him during the time he was under the care of Starflight Medevac?
It is impossible to ascertain what information Kalfas may have obtained from Starflight Medevac. The previous three and a half lines of Kalfas’s entry for 9/24/03 are completely redacted (blacked out) in my copy of the police report. Do those redacted lines refer in any way to Starflight Medevac's report of their treatment of my brother prior to and during the flight to the Erie County Medical Center?
There are so many aspects of the N.Y.S.P. investigation into my brother’s death in 2003 and afterwards, including their failure to take seriously the pool of Mark’s blood found on his driveway the night of the fire and to find out how that gas can ended up on the passenger’s side floor of the cab of his truck. Their examination of my brother’s medical records is one more example of negligence by the New York State Police or of their intent to conceal information that did not fit their theory of suicide or accident.
