PITTSBURGH — Dr. Bennet Omalu, the renowned forensic pathologist who linked traumatic brain disease to NFL players, is firing back at the Allegheny County Medical Examiner and the Pittsburgh Police Officers’ Union.
As 11 Investigates first reported last week, Omalu was hired by the city for $10,000 to review the death of Jim Rogers.
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Rogers died after a police officer used a taser on him multiple times while investigating a report of a stolen bicycle in Bloomfield two years ago.
Rogers went into medical distress as police drove him to the hospital. He died the next day.
The medical examiner ruled his death accidental and said he died from lack of oxygen to the brain.
The city fired four officers for failing to get Rogers medical assistance, excessive force and violating rules and regulations.
Two of those officers already reached settlements with the city to be reinstated. A third is expected to return to the force as well.
The hearing for the officer who tased Rogers is still pending. He is attempting to get his job back as well.
Omalu told 11 Investigates last week that he didn’t know much about the case and that the city hired him to review the medical records.
A day later, 11 Investigates discovered that Omalu had been hired by defense attorney Todd Hollis for $5,000 as an expert witness in a wrongful death lawsuit that Hollis filed against the city of Pittsburgh on behalf of the family of Jim Rogers.
Omalu never mentioned that in his statement to 11 Investigates.
On Tuesday morning, Omalu sent a lengthy statement to 11 Investigates urging attorney Hollis to release a report he wrote on Jim Rogers’ cause of death.
Omalu also lashed out at the Allegheny County Medical Examiner Dr. Karl Williams, accusing him of misleading the public in the Jim Rogers case.
Omalu said he would tell the truth about what happened.
“I will present the scientific facts on this case and prove that the medical examiner who performed this autopsy misled the public intentionally and determined this case to be an accident and not a homicide in order to protect the police,” Omalu wrote in the statement.
Omalu also lashed out at the Pittsburgh Police Officers’ Union, which has fought the firing of the officers.
“It is so appalling that the police union is stooping this low. What are we all afraid of, the truth? I will speak to the City Attorney who retained me, I will do this work pro-bono like I have done in so many cases I have been involved with across the world,” Omalu said.
Omalu said he would donate his $10,000 to a charity in Pittsburgh.
“I will forfeit my retainer fee on this case, and donate $10,000 to a charity in Pittsburgh that fights against systemic racism, police and government corruption, which is what is happening here. This is very infuriating. The representations being made to the press about me are false,” Omalu said.
The President of the police officers’ union, Bob Swartzwelder, took issue with Omalu’s statements.
“The FOP welcomes all evidence to include Dr. Omalu’s report. However, according to the City attorneys, no report has ever been produced by the City’s medical expert. Either Dr. Omalu is being misleading or the City law department is misleading the various arbitration panels evaluating police officer conduct in the Jim Rogers arrest. The FOP finds it highly disturbing that Dr. Omalu would call Dr. Williams corrupt. Dr. Williams is honest, professional, and a highly competent pathologist. I guess if anyone doesn’t agree with Dr. Omalu, they are either incompetent or corrupt,” Swartzwelder said.
Omalu also responded to an 11 Investigates report on Monday that revealed that he owed more than $240,000 in back property taxes to Allegheny County for an old catholic school building in Clairton he purchased for $80,0000 through a limited partnership in 2006.
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“This building to the best of my recollection was sold many years ago for $1 by my attorneys in Pittsburgh. It was a building we had purchased to build a community health care center for the City of Clairton, since it was a medically underserved area. This was a way I thought I could give back to America since America had given me so much. We raised about $1.6 million dollars in initial funding, but the people of the city told me that they did not want me in their city because I was a black man. They began to sabotage our efforts at the site and I began to receive threats. I had to return the money we had raised after we had begun work on the project, hiring an architect and a building contractor. The project was shut down and I had to repay Dollar Bank about one-quarter of a million dollars from my own personal funds. This was one of the reasons why I left Pittsburgh in addition to how the NFL was attacking me since Pittsburgh was an NFL town,” wrote Omalu.
The Allegheny County Real Estate Website still lists Omalu’s limited partnership as the owner of the old school building.
County Treasurer John Weinstein told 11 Investigates that when school taxes are included in the bill, the limited partnership owes more than $1 million in back taxes.
We reached out to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner for a statement but as of this writing had not heard back.
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