theatrical_muse 284. You're fired! Talk about a time you were forced out of something.
"This job isn't about favors. It's about finding truth." - Dr. Julianna Cox, Homicide: Life on the Street 6x14 "Lies and Other Truths."
Baltimore, 1998.
I was the Chief Medical Examiner for the City. I worked my ass off to get that job. Med school, internship, residency, job with the Erie Department of Health up in Buffalo. I was even an award-winner. When I got the Chief job back in my hometown of Baltimore, it was with the promise that the changes I made would be welcome ones. They were looking for fresh, young blood they said. After two years there, the Deputy Director of Health and Human Services even credited me with making the Baltimore Office of the Chief M.E. one of the most top-notch facilities in the nation.
Funny how one minute you're getting complimented and the next minute you're being booted out the door.
So I got a call out to the scene of a car accident. It was a day just like any other. I had no idea a simple crash would turn out to be so complicated.
A witness told police that a State road management truck rammed a sedan off the road. Truck driver was killed on impact, driver of the car, guy named Dietz, was decapitated. Dietz's wife was paralyzed from the neck down.
After the autopsies were done, I found that Dietz' blood alcohol level was .09 - barely within the legal limit, but he hadn't technically been driving drunk.
I didn't think much of it until Jesse Randolph, the aforementioned Deputy Director of the State’s Health and Human Services Department, paid me a visit. At first I thought it was just a check-up. You know, routine visit from the bureaucrats - that sort of thing. He sweet-talked me and then casually mentioned that he had "information" that would suggest Dietz' BAC should've been higher - maybe it went down by the time I autopsied him, maybe his weight should've been more of a factor. I thought it was a bit odd, but that maybe it was some part of making sure I was doing my job right. Randolph was one of my bosses, a guy I trusted, so I told him I'd re-run the tests, look things over.
Before I could do that, I was approached by a lawyer for the Dietz family. She wanted autopsy information. I told her I hadn't finalized that yet...and then she informed me that the Dietzes were suing the State of Maryland for Mr. Dietz's death and Mrs. Dietz's paralysis.
...and then I realized the real reason behind Randolph's visit. Still, I re-ran the tests. I got back the same result. Dietz's BAC was unequivocally .09. I told Randolph as much when he visited me next. This time, he actually suggested I change the results. I was…shocked, to say the least. And if I didn’t? I asked. If I didn’t, he said, “we don’t want to have to think about that.”
I knew what he meant. My job was at risk. So I told him that maybe I made a mistake with the tests, that I’d been distracted lately-and that I’d get back to him soon.
The next couple of days seemed to last forever. I didn’t sleep much, probably drank more than I ate. I kept going back and forth, mentally, on what I should do. Finally, a couple of conversations, one with Mike Kellerman, one with Al Giardello, set me straight.
I fired a guy once, when I first got the job in Baltimore, for falsifying records. How could I do the same thing, get a pat on the back from my superiors for it even, and still do my job?
So I did what I had to.
Once Randolph was aware that I wouldn’t change the documents, he sent me to Annapolis to the Director. I got to the Department of Health and Human Services, went on up to the Director’s office…and waited.
…and waited and waited. He kept me out in the waiting room for nearly an hour. Finally I went up to the secretary to find out what was going on. She informed me, with no empathy, that the Director was in a meeting but that he had a message for me. The message? “You’re fired.”
Oh, yes. Didn’t even have the balls to do it in person. I guess I still take some comfort in the fact that the guy knew that what he was doing was wrong.
I think packing up my things was possibly the hardest - clearing out my desk, looking one last time at a place I’d put so much work and pride into for two years.
Icing on the cake? They ended up settling with Mrs. Dietz anyway. $45 million. She deserved every penny of it.
Me? I took a little over a year off, went traveling, visited friends, took time to smell the roses and all of that.
Landed a job in Takoma Park not long after. Stayed there a few years…and now here I am in New York City, still trying to do my job, still trying to convince myself that at the end of the day, I’ve made the right choices. As for Baltimore-it’ll always be my home…it’s just different now. There are burned bridges, awkward silences, memories the Charm City rain won’t wash away. If I hadn’t been fired, I honestly don’t know how much longer I would’ve stayed anyway.
Word Count: 888