A nonprofit law firm specializing in overturning wrongful convictions is asking a Ramsey County judge to unseal records in the 2009 murder case of an Inver Grove Heights woman, citing “rising concerns of unreliable, misleading, and/or false testimony” in other cases involving the medical examiner who performed the autopsy.
In a court filing, lawyers for the Great North Innocence Project say they need the full cache of autopsy records to complete a review of the evidence that led to the conviction of Michael Sontoya, who is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the sexual assault and murder of Gabriela Romo.
The doctor who conducted Romo’s autopsy and testified in the trial is Michael McGee — the former chief medical examiner in Ramsey County whose “medically unsupported testimony” wrongfully sent another man, Thomas Rhodes, to prison for 25 years, according to an investigation by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. Since his release last year, Rhodes has filed a lawsuit accusing McGee of fabricating medical conclusions and providing false testimony in the 1996 drowning death of his wife.
McGee’s Ramsey County case history, dating back four decades, is under review by County Attorney John Choi’s office and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
“Given Dr. McGee’s documented history of providing inaccurate testimony in court, we agree with both the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office that convictions based largely on his testimony deserve scrutiny,” Great North Innocence Project attorney James Mayer told the Star Tribune this week.
A hearing on the request to unseal the records is scheduled for May 20. Dennis Gerhardstein, a spokesman for Choi’s office, said the office will not oppose the motion, but that decision “does not reflect our position about whether the individual may be entitled to relief.”
McGee and his attorneys didn’t respond to a request for comment to this and other recent Star Tribune stories on questions about his work.
After four days of testimony in his 2009 trial, a jury convicted Sontoya, then 32, of first-degree murder while committing a sexual assault and second-degree murder while committing felony assault in Romo’s death.