Posted an article from here to 50 million facebook users today! A good one!
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Posted an article from here to 50 million facebook users today! A good one!
http://www.alipac.us/f9/congressiona...atives-248063/
Here Post this on the Gheen Report! It is the fastest on the internet after all!
http://www.alipac.us/f9/congressiona...atives-248063/
Does anyone know what the average time for autopsy results to come back in are? This seems like an incredible wait for test results for a man that was a national figure.
W
This article is from the WebMD Feature Archive
The Truth About Toxicology Tests
Facts about 'real-life' toxicology tests you won't learn from watching television crime shows.
By Kathleen Doheny
WebMD Feature
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
On television crime shows, the results of toxicology tests are spewed out at warp speed, sometimes available even before the autopsy is complete.
In real life, toxicology test results take much longer.
"Some of the tests take days, weeks, months," says Alan Hall, MD, a board-certified toxicologist and consultant in Laramie, Wyo. The final toxicology report, he says, draws not only from multiple test results and confirmation of the results, but also on the clinical experience of the toxicologists and pathologists involved in the investigation, as well as field work.
Here is what toxicology tests include, why they take so long, and why they can be tricky.
What is toxicology testing?
The toxicology testing performed after a person's death is known as forensic toxicology testing or postmortem drug testing.
That's different from clinical toxicology, according to the College of American Pathologists. This is the drug testing an emergency room doctor would be likely to order, for instance, if a patient shows up with signs and symptoms of drug overdose or abuse.
Other types of toxicology testing include workplace drug testing, which also screens for drugs of abuse, and athletic drug testing in sport programs, which detect banned substances or drugs that enhance performance.
The toxicology report that is eventually issued in forensic toxicology testing "is the result of the lab procedures identifying and quantifying potential toxins, which include prescription medications and drugs of abuse and interpretations of the findings," says Howard S. Robin, MD. He is the medical director of laboratory services at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego and is a board-certified pathologist.
Toxicology testing is part of the autopsy report, Robin says. "A complete autopsy should have some level of toxicology studies."
How are forensic toxicology tests done?
At the time of the autopsy, collection of blood, urine, and tissue samples is done in preparation for the toxicology tests, says Barbarajean Magnani, PhD, MD, chairwoman of the Toxicology Resource committee for the College of American Pathologists. She is also vice-chair of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at Tufts Medical Center, Boston.
"We collect blood from different areas, such as the femoral vein [in the leg] and heart blood," she tells WebMD. That's because the concentration of drugs can be different, she says, so comparing the concentrations can boost accuracy.
''We collect urine if there is any [in the body] and also use tissues [to test],” Magnani says.
Specimens taken for forensic toxicology testing routinely include, in addition to blood and urine, tissue samples from the liver, brain, kidney, and vitreous humor (the clear ''jelly" found in the eyeball chamber), according to information from the College of American Pathologists. Samples of the stomach contents and bile, a digestive juice secreted by the liver, are also collected routinely.
How are forensic toxicology tests done? continued...
The tissue and fluid collection is typically done by a pathologist or morgue assistant, Robin says, and the process usually takes just 15 or 20 minutes.
Next, the specimens are turned over to a toxicology expert for testing. Testing is typically done by medical technologists or chemists, such as forensic chemists with doctoral training who are certified by The American Board of Clinical Chemistry or the American Board of Forensic Toxicology, according to the College of American Pathologists.
Medical examiner office personnel can also conduct toxicology drug testing related to an autopsy. Toxicology drug testing laboratories where the analyses are carried out are accredited by such organizations as the College of American Pathologists or state health departments or other organizations, to ensure uniform quality standards.
''The tissue is placed in special containers that prevent contamination of the tissue,'' Robin says. Preservatives can help prevent or delay breakdown of the drugs in the samples, Magnani says.
A ''paper trail'' records exactly who has handled the specimens to reduce the chance of contamination or mix-ups.
Just as important as the collection and tracking of fluid, blood, and tissue samples is the field investigation, Robin says. That involves officials looking into the medicine cabinet and around the home of the deceased person for drugs he or she may have been taking, including prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, and illicit drugs.
That search could also turn up evidence that a person was getting prescriptions from several doctors.
Who interprets forensic toxicology tests, and how?
Toxicologists, chemists, and pathologists all need to be involved to correctly interpret results.
''The first thing we would do is a basic screen for drugs in the urine and in the blood," Magnani says. The search would be for drugs such as opiates, amphetamines, marijuana, alcohol, and barbiturates, she says.
The basic toxicology screen typically uses an immunoassay, Robin says. This type of test looks for drugs in the blood using specific antibodies that detect various classes of drugs.
If something shows up, a more sophisticated test is done, using techniques such as mass spectrometry, which can identify chemicals in substances by their mass and charge.
"These confirmatory methods are actually more sensitive," Robin says. "You can find lower quantities [of the substance]."
The more sophisticated tests can tell experts the exact concentration of the drug or other substance, says Hall, who is also clinical assistant professor of public health at Weatherford College in Weatherford, Texas.
Experts also can determine if two drugs found together may have had a synergistic effect -- which happens when two drugs similar in their actions produce an exaggerated effect when taken together. It's akin to ''one plus one equals five," Robins says.
Experts have to determine if the drug or other substances found in the specimens are a therapeutic dose, a toxic dose, or a lethal dose -- whether they contributed to the death or caused the death.
Why do the forensic toxicology tests take so long?
Getting a complete and accurate forensic toxicology test result can be a lengthy process for a variety of reasons, according to the College of American Pathologists and experts interviewed by WebMD.
There may be a lot of specimens that need to be tested, which means more testing time. And as an investigation proceeds, information about the possibility of another drug being involved may surface, so even more testing may be needed.
When the first round of positive tests have to be confirmed by the more sophisticated method, this may require sending out the specimens to more specialized laboratories. And that adds to the delay.
"Four to six weeks is pretty standard," Magnani says of the time line for forensic toxicology testing. Besides the time needed for painstaking analysis and confirmation, she says, there could be a backlog of tests that need to be done at a particular laboratory.
"Each one should be handled thoroughly, whether they are a celebrity or not," she says.
How do the toxicology reports help determine cause of death?
Experts look to see if the concentration of drugs or poisons are in the toxic or lethal range, Magnani says. They take into account other information, such as symptoms before their death.
For instance, she recalls a man who passed out and when roused by police was so belligerent it took several officers to subdue him. Then he died suddenly.
No physical findings from the autopsy pointed to a cause of death, she says. ''The toxicology report showed the presence of cocaine at a level sufficient to cause death," she says. And the belligerent behavior was another clue.
But not every toxicology report is so clear-cut, Robin says. And television really does present a skewed view of forensic toxicology testing, he and other experts agree.
"At the end of the [TV crime] show, they don't say it's an indeterminate cause of death," he says. But in real life? "Two to five percent of deaths are indeterminate," Robin says, citing forensic literature.
What complicates the process? Drugs of abuse can change constantly, Robin says, with one drug becoming popular, for instance, while others fade in popularity. "You are always looking for what is the new drug [of choice]," he says.
Toxicology Tests: What They Are and Why They Take So Long
That is an interesting article JohnDoe2. Thank you for posting that.
So if toxicology usually takes 4-6 weeks, and is in the longer range if some of their tests for toxins come back positive and have to be further analyzed, then we are at the 6 week mark now.
Each day that passes from this point forward would suggest that the toxicology testing has found something of interest with the case of Andrew Breitbart.
W
RELATED
4/20/2012
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Autopsy Report now @
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Breitbart's coroner poisoned to death?
Police probe mysterious demise of L.A. medical examiner
Joe Kovacs
WND
April 29, 2012
http://www.wnd.com/files/2012/04/bre...00-300x150.jpg
Andrew Breitbart
Medical examiners in Los Angeles are investigating the possible poisoning death of one of their own officials who may have worked on the case of Andrew Breitbart, the conservative firebrand who died March 1, the same day Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced probable cause for forgery in President Obama’s birth certificate.
Michael Cormier, a respected forensic technician for the Los Angeles County Coroner died under suspicious circumstances at his North Hollywood home April 20, the same day Breitbart’s cause of death was finally made public.
“There are mysterious circumstances surrounding his death,” said Elizabeth Espinosa, a news reporter for KTLA-TV. “We’re told detectives are looking into the possibility that he was poisoned by arsenic.”
Help Sheriff Joe blow the lid off Obama’s fraud. Join the Cold Case Posse right now!
Cormier, 61, had been rushed to Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank after complaining of pain and vomiting.
“He was transported there early in the morning, and passed away late at night,” Ed Winter, assistant chief of operations and Cormier’s colleague at the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner, told KTLA. “It affects everybody when you lose a co-worker, but we’ll proceed and do our job and try to figure out why Michael died.”
The hospital then notified Los Angeles Police about Cormier’s death.
“At this point we haven’t ruled out foul play,” police Lt. Alan Hamilton told the Los Angeles Times. “It is one of the things being considered. We are waiting for the coroner’s results.”
Toxicology results are not expected for five to six weeks.
Sources told the Times several hazardous materials experts and officers searched Cormier’s home in search of what may have caused his sudden demise.
http://www.wnd.com/files/2012/04/mic...er-300x166.jpg
Michael Cormier
“The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that finding the presence of poison does not necessarily mean the death was a homicide, because the substance could have accidentally entered his system,” the Times reported.
Hamilton also noted investigations are standard procedure when there’s a suggestion of anything other than natural causes in someone’s death.
It’s still unclear if Cormier personally worked on the probe into Breitbart’s death, and WND has left messages with the coroner’s office seeking comment.
On April 20, the same day Cormier died, the coroner’s office released its findings into the death of Breitbart, stating the 43-year-old conservative media powerhouse died of natural causes, listing cause of death as heart failure.
“No prescription or illicit drugs were detected.The blood alcohol was .04%,” the official report said. “No significant trauma was present and foul play is not suspected.”
Breitbart was founder of BigGovernment.com among other websites.
The night before Breitbart died, WND senior staff reporter Jerome Corsi arranged for Breitbart to interview Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who the very next day held a news conference to announce there was probable cause to believe President Obama’s birth certificate released on April 27, 2011, was a forgery, as well as Obama’s Selective Service Card.
“I have known Andrew for nearly 15 years and considered him a friend. His passion and energy for seeking the truth will be greatly missed by the nation. It’s almost incomprehensible that he left us so soon,” said Joseph Farah, founder and editor of WND.
In a column, Farah recalled meeting Breitbart years ago when he worked as a backup editor for the Drudge Report.
Matt Drudge paid tribute to his colleague and friend with a posting on the Drudge Report: “In the first decade of the DRUDGEREPORT Andrew Breitbart was a constant source of energy, passion and commitment. We shared a love of headlines, a love of the news, an excitement about what’s happening. I don’t think there was a single day during that time when we did not flash each other or laugh with each other, or challenge each other. I still see him in my mind’s eye in Venice Beach, the sunny day I met him. He was in his mid 20′s. It was all there. He had a wonderful, loving family and we all feel great sadness for them today.”
Rush Limbaugh called Breitbart an “indefatigable bulldog for the conservative cause.”
Sean Hannity told WND: “Andrew was a warrior, though a happy warrior, who relished political combat. He cared deeply for his friends, his family and his country. The movement has lost a passionate advocate. And I have lost a good friend. Andrew and his family are in our prayers.”
Breitbart’s coroner poisoned to death?
Dead Men Don't Talk.....
Coroner of Andrew Breitbart Poisoned Amid Suspicious Circumstances As Trail of Death Continues
By Shepard Ambellas
theintelhub.com
April 30, 2012
6 Comments
Michael Cormier (possibly the coroner of the late Andrew Breitbart) has apparently died from what has been described as arsenic poisoning. Cormier was found dead on April 20th, the same day that Andrew Beritbarts much anticipated preliminary autopsy was released.
Did Cormier know a little too much? Was he about to blow the Breitbart murder cover up wide open?
Breitbart died March 1st of this year, the same day Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced that after hundreds of hours of research, his Cold Case Posse had come to the conclusion that President Obama’s credentials were fraudulent.
An LA Times Blog Post on Cormier’s death somehow forgot to mention the Breitbart connection.He spent his life trying to determine how people died. But now his colleagues are searching for answers after he died under mysterious circumstances.Right Side News reported;
Los Angeles police detectives, with the help of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, are investigating the death of Michael Cormier. Officials said he might have died of poisoning, but they have not provided further information.
Cormier, 61, died last week after being taken to Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank from his North Hollywood home. Earlier he had complained of pain and vomiting.
Hospital staff notified police about concerns surrounding the cause of Cormier’s death.
“At this point we haven’t ruled out foul play,” said Lt. Alan Hamilton of the Los Angeles Police Department. “It is one of the things being considered. We are waiting for the coroner’s results.”
KTLA TV reporter Elizabeth Espinoza said that detectives were investigating possible arsenic poisoning in Mr. Cormier’s case. A toxicology report will take five to six weeks.Interestingly enough, Sheriff Joe and his cold case posse will be releasing new findings around the time of the Bilderberg meetings in late May to early June.
CBS 5 News reports;CBS 5 News has learned exclusive details on a forthcoming announcement from Sheriff Joe Arpaio concerning his team’s work on President Barack Obama’s eligibility to hold office.We will bring you updates as we receive them and will be bringing you live coverage of the news conference as it happens.
Mike Zullo, the lead investigator for the Maricopa County Cold Case Posse, provided some insight into what will be released later this spring.
“Let me put it this way,” Zullo said. “I wouldn’t be doing it to give them a rehash.”
CBS 5 News pressed Zullo for answers upon learning that he and the sheriff are planning another news conference in late May or early June. The announcement would come roughly three months after Arpaio released the results from his six-month probe into the validity of the president’s birth certificate. The controversial announcement: the document is a fake.
“We didn’t make a mistake the first time. We’re not making a mistake this time,” Zullo said.
The new findings will include data on Obama’s 1980 registration for the draft. Earlier this year Arpaio sent the U.S. Selective Service System a letter which requested a loan of the original document.
Coroner of Andrew Breitbart Poisoned Amid Suspicious Circumstances As Trail of Death Continues :
Now a witness to Breitbart's death vanishes
Follows suspicious demise of member of coroner's team
Published: 4 hours ago
by Jerome R. Corsi
A private investigator has been unable to find the only eyewitness to the sudden death of media innovator and conservative activist Andrew Breitbart.
The apparent disappearance of Christopher Lasseter, who says he saw Breitbart drop to the sidewalk in front of a restaurant, adds to the mystery surrounding Breitbart’s March 1 death.
On the day the Los Angeles County coroner released Breitbart’s autopsy report, a photographic technician at the coroner’s office died suddenly of suspicious causes.
In addition, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., just three weeks before Breitbart’s death – where he promised to unveil “damning” new video evidence of Barack Obama’s radical past that would change the election – Breitbart gave WND details of his upcoming revelations.
He claimed to WND that he had a video showing radical Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers and Barack Obama at Harvard planning revolution in the United States. But the video, aired just after he died, was of Obama introducing a radical Harvard professor, and the general response was flat.
Filmmaker Steve Bannon, appointed executive chairman of the Breitbart News Network after Breitbart’s death, has insisted to WND that the media mogul died of natural causes and to suggest anything else is irresponsible.
“Breitbart had an enlarged heart,” Bannon told WND. “He had been hospitalized for the problem last year and told to lose weight that he did not lose.”
Bannon, formerly a Breitbart News Network board member, told WND that for months prior to his death, Breitbart had been working overtime to finalize a refinancing of his news agency.
“He died of natural causes,” Bannon said. “The family wants the matter put to rest, and WND is beginning to irritate me suspecting foul play.”
In addition to Bannon, Laurence Solov, formerly president and chief operating officer, was elevated after Breitbart’s death. Solov took Breitbart’s place as CEO.
An eyewitness disappears
After recruiting the assistance of private investigators, WND found that Lasseter, the 26-year-old witness who saw Breitbart drop dead, is no longer residing at his last known address in California.
At the request of WND, Ohio-based private investigator Susan Daniels recruited a California-based private investigator to find Lasseter. The local investigator tried without success to find a cell phone or landline phone number for Lasseter.
After determining that Lasseter lived with his parents, Thornton, age 64, and Elaine, age 56, at a Los Angeles address, the investigator visited the residence in-person to see if he could make contact.
During the visit, the investigator reported, no one picked up the phone when he dialed the Lasseter apartment number outside the building. But he was greeted by a voice recording that identified different people at the apartment by first name, with none of the names on the recording being Christopher, Thornton or Elaine.
The investigator concluded Christopher Lasseter had “hunkered down” in what seemed to be an attempt to avoid further questioning.
He was unsure Lasseter was still residing at the address and considered it possible that Lasseter had moved.
On March 1, Crime File News reported Lasseter was walking his dog in Brentwood, Calif., when he saw Breitbart cross the street from the Brentwood Restaurant.
Breitbart was walking without apparent distress when he stepped on the curb “and fell like a sack of potatoes,” Lasseter said.
He noted that Breitbart’s skin color was bright red, which is not typically associated with heart attack victims.
Paul Huebl, who writes for CrimeFileNews.com, reported April 22 that he interviewed Lasseter and added the detail that the witness was disturbed by Breitbart’s color.
As a former Army medical corpsman, Lasseter knew that most heart attack victims turned blue.
Coroner’s assistant dies
On April 20, Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Craig Harvey released the autopsy report on Breitbart, listing the cause of death as heart failure resulting from an enlarged heart and some heart disease.
Harvey noted no prescription or illegal drugs were detected and only a small amount of alcohol was found in Breitbart’s system at the time of death.
While the coroner concluded no foul play was suspected, his report made no attempt to explain why Lasseter observed Breitbart’s skin was “bright red” at time of his death.
Then, within hours of the release of Breitbart’s preliminary autopsy report, Michael Cormier, age 61, a forensic technician who worked as a photographer in the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, died suddenly from what is suspected to be arsenic poisoning.
“At this point we haven’t ruled out foul play,” Los Angeles Police Lt. Alan Hamilton told the Los Angeles Times, referring to Cormier’s sudden death. “It’s one of the thing being considered. We are waiting for the coroner’s results.”
A video about Derrick Bell airs
At CPAC Feb. 10, Breitbart told the influential audience of grass-roots supporters that he planned to do the vetting on Barack Obama that the mainstream media failed to do in 2008. He promised to begin releasing videos within a few weeks.
“The videos are going to come out; the narrative is going to come out that Barack Obama met a bunch of silver ponytails back in the 1980s like Bill (Ayers) and Bernardine Dohrn, equally radical, who said one day we’re going to have the presidency.”
Breitbart told WND at CPAC that the not-yet released videos included footage of Ayers and Obama openly discussing revolution while Obama was a student at Harvard Law School.
The video released by Breitbart.com after Breitbart’s death, however, showed law student Obama embracing Prof. Derrick Bell, a radical academic with ties to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s radical pastor for 20 years in Chicago.
“The video did not seem as earthshattering as Breitbart initially claimed it to be, just weeks before the 43-year-old unexpectedly passed away at his home last Thursday,” the New York Daily News observed.
Bannon insisted to WND that the video released by Breitbart.com after Breitbart’s death was the film Breitbart referred to when speaking in February to CPAC.
“There is no other footage,” Bannon insisted. “We were working on the Derrick Bell video when Breitbart died, and we released to the public the video we have.”
Bannon pointed out that during his CPAC speech Breitbart made the point that Obama at Harvard had advocated for “the worst of the worst to join the faculty – radicals at Beirut on the Charles.”
On Feb 5, Breitbart had dinner cooked by Ayers at the home of Ayers and Dohrn after Daily Caller publisher Tucker Carlson won a “Super Bowl Dinner” auctioned off by Ayers for $2,500.
Now a witness to Breitbart’s death vanishes
Only Eyewitness to Breitbart’s Death Disappears
Forensic techniciandied from suspected arsenic poisoning last month
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Following the suspected arsenic poisoning of a forensic technician in the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, the only eyewitness to Andrew Breitbart’s death has now vanished.http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...itbart-007.jpg
26-year-old Christopher Lasseter saw Breitbart drop dead “like a sack of potatoes” on March 1, hours before Breitbart was set to release a damning video that showed Barack Obama fraternizing with Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers.
Lasseter reported that Breitbart’s skin was a bizarre bright red color when he collapsed, a symptom not associated with heart attacks and one which was not explained in Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Craig Harvey’s autopsy report, which lists the cause of death as heart failure.
“I asked Lassiter specifically about Breitbart’s skin color and he said it was “bright red.” That bothered me because as an Army medical corpsman I knew that most heart attack victims turned blue,” wrote Paul Huebl, adding that Breitbart had drunk little alcohol and, “Poisons like cyanide, or carbon monoxide are known for turning skin red…The reality is they cannot be detected by normal toxicology testing.”
After World Net Daily hired a private investigator in an effort to locate Lassiter, it appears as though he has completely vanished.
“After recruiting the assistance of private investigators, WND found that Lasseter, the 26-year-old witness who saw Breitbart drop dead, is no longer residing at his last known address in California,” writes Jerome Corsi.“At the request of WND, Ohio-based private investigator Susan Daniels recruited a California-based private investigator to find Lasseter. The local investigator tried without success to find a cell phone or landline phone number for Lasseter.”
“The investigator concluded Christopher Lasseter had “hunkered down” in what seemed to be an attempt to avoid further questioning.”
Is it possible that Lassiter decided to flee after hearing about the suspicious death of Michael Cormier, a forensic technician who worked as a photographer in the Los Angeles County coroner’s office and could easily have known damning information about Breitbart’s death?
Cormier died suddenly from suspected arsenic poisoning last month on the same day Andrew Breitbart’s autopsy report was made public, with police considering foul play as one of the motives. Was Cormier targeted because he knew something about the strange red color of Breitbart’s skin which contradicted the autopsy report?
Despite the fact that Breitbart made it clear both publicly during a CPAC speech and privately to World Net Daily that he was set to release bombshell video on March 1 which showed President Barack Obama alongside Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, when the footage eventually was released it actually showed Obama embracing radical Prof. Derrick Bell.
Breitbart News Network’s Steve Bannon now denies there was any footage featuring Obama with Ayers and has slammed World Net Daily for asking questions about the bizarre circumstances surrounding Breitbart’s death.
“He died of natural causes,” Bannon said. “The family wants the matter put to rest, and WND is beginning to irritate me suspecting foul play.”
*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.
Prison Planet.com » Only Eyewitness to Breitbart’s Death Disappears
This whole thing just keeps getting stranger.....
WorldNetDaily Still Chasing Down Andrew Breitbart Conspiracy Theories
By Richard Horgan on May 8, 2012 7:30 AM
Despite the fact that Steve Bannon, a filmmaker and executive chairman of the Breitbart News Network, has appealed to website WorldNetDaily to stop pursuing Andrew Breitbart death conspiracy theories, contributor Jerome R. Corsi goes down that road again. Bear in mind that the title of Corsi’s latest book is Where’s the REAL Birth Certificate?
Along with what Corsi deems death by “suspicious causes” of a 61-year-old photographic technician at the LA Coroner’s office the day the preliminary Breitbart autopsy report was released, there is also the matter of 26-year-old Christopher Lasseter. The site thinks it’s strange that the only witness to Breitbart’s sidewalk collapse has seemingly gone into hiding:
At the request of WND, Ohio-based private investigator Susan Daniels recruited a California-based private investigator to find Lasseter. The local investigator tried without success to find a cell phone or landline phone number for Lasseter.
After determining that Lasseter lived with his parents, Thornton, age 64, and Elaine, age 56, at a Los Angeles address, the investigator visited the residence in-person to see if he could make contact. During the visit, the investigator reported, no one picked up the phone when he dialed the Lasseter apartment number outside the building. But he was greeted by a voice recording that identified different people at the apartment by first name, with none of the names on the recording being Christopher, Thornton or Elaine.
The investigator concluded Christopher Lasseter had “hunkered down” in what seemed to be an attempt to avoid further questioning.
The cause of the April 20 death of LA Coroner’s office employee Michael Cormier has yet to be confirmed. Autopsy results for his death are expected to be available around the end of this month.
WorldNetDaily Still Chasing Down Andrew Breitbart Conspiracy Theories - FishbowlLA
Police Debunk Theories Linking Breitbart, L.A. Coroner Tech Deaths
May 9, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
Police don’t yet know what killed L.A. autopsy technician Michael Cormier, but they tell Maria Elena Fernandez and Christine Pelisek that despite blogosphere conspiracy theorists, it had no connection to Andrew Breitbart’s death.
Los Angeles police won’t know for a few more weeks why Michael A. Cormier, a longtime county coroner’s autopsy technician and photographer, died on April 20. But they do know it had nothing do with the March 1 death of conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart—no matter what you read elsewhere.
Cormier’s colleagues at the coroner’s office are waiting for the results of toxicology tests after an initial exam at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, coupled with comments made by Cormier himself, led doctors to believe the 61-year-old North Hollywood man could have ingested poison.
The death of the scruffy, bearded, and bespectacled forensic technician has attracted unusual national attention because of Internet conspiracy theories blaming President Obama for Breitbart’s death. The 43-year-old Tea Party star, who took down ACORN, former Rep. Anthony Weiner, and government official Shirley Sherrod, died in Los Angeles on March 1 of heart failure, according to the L.A. coroner’s office.
But despite that conclusion, some of Breitbart’s followers continue to suspect criminality in his death. As the conspiracy theory circulating in the blogosphere goes, Breitbart interviewed Arizona’s Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Feb. 29, the day before the sheriff held a press conference to announce that his investigative team had found “probable cause to believe” the birth certificate President Obama released in 2011 is a forgery. According to infowars.com, Breitbart’s March 1 death, before his planned release of video footage showing a college-age Obama at a Harvard rally, is evidence that Obama is an “advocate of racial division and class warfare.” So, according to the conspiracy theorists, Obama’s revenge for exposing his alleged birth certificate fraud and racism was killing Breitbart.
Then Cormier died April 20, the same day the coroner’s office announced Breitbart’s cause of death, further encouraging the conspiracy theorists. Breitbart, a father of four, had been taking a walk near his home when he collapsed from heart failure, according to test results released by Los Angeles police. Citing Cormier’s work on Breitbart’s autopsy as a red flag, conspiracy theorists in the blogosphere immediately called the forensic technician’s death “suspicious.”
Conservative media publisher and activist Andrew Breitbart during an interview with the Associated Press at his home in Los Angeles, Feb. 11, 2010 (Reed Saxon / AP Photo)
The problem with the “suspicious” Cormier-Breitbart link, law-enforcement officials told The Daily Beast, is that Cormier “had nothing to do with the autopsy ... and wasn’t in the same room.”
“It had nothing to do with that,” LAPD homicide supervisor Det. Rich Wheeler said. “He had nothing to do with the autopsy or anything to do with the case ... That story is based on rumor and innuendo.”
LAPD hazardous materials officers have searched the one-bedroom home Cormier shared with his wife, Sharon, and interviewed his family and friends, but not because of Breitbart, law-enforcement officials said. Cormier was first hospitalized on April 18, complaining of abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Doctors suspected he had a perforated bowel but released him anyway, though not before Cormier told them he thought someone had tried to poison him.
The following day, Cormier’s stomach pain continued, and he was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph’s, where he suffered three heart attacks, according to a law-enforcement source. When an initial toxicology test proved “questionable” and Cormier later died, the hospital notified the coroner’s office.
“We have information that could potentially include foul play,” LAPD Lt. Alan Hamilton said last week. “We are not ruling anything out.”
“He had nothing to do with the autopsy or anything to do with the case … That story is based on rumor and innuendo.”
That includes natural causes. Sources told The Daily Beast that Cormier had a preexisting heart condition and had worn a heart monitor in the past. As Hamilton pointed out, it is also possible that Cormier accidentally poisoned himself.
On Tuesday, Cormier’s widow responded to a phone call by The Daily Beast by saying: “This is an ongoing investigation, and I don’t know anything! Don’t ever call me again!”
For the moment, Wheeler said the police department is not actively investigating Cormier’s death. “We did our normal investigation that we would do and right now there is nothing else we can do until the coroner makes a determination.”
Cormier worked for the coroner’s office for nearly two decades. He also owned a business called MAC Autopsy Services and starred in a DVD extra for the 2005 horror flick Chaos. The short film Inside the Coroner’s Office: A Tour of the L.A. Coroner’s Crypt, featured the forensic technician showing writer/director Dave DeFalco around the morgue.
A friend of Cormier’s, Arman Belderain, told KCAL9 that he last spoke to Cormier on April 18, the day he admitted himself to the hospital. Belderain remembered his friend as a devout Christian who was “meticulous” at his job and spent time at the cemetery to “soften his heart” after a hard day at the office.
“To get that sense of peace, he would go to the cemetery and spend time with the Lord,” Belderain said.
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Maria Elena Fernandez is a senior entertainment reporter for Newsweek/The Daily Beast. She previously covered television and nightlife for the Los Angeles Times and spent many years on the crime beat, writing for The Washington Post and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She also worked at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, where she covered the AIDS epidemic. Her children’s book, The Secret of Fern Island, was published in 1996 under a pseudonym so that she wouldn’t be stalked by screaming children.
Christine Pelisek is a staff reporter for The Daily Beast, covering crime. She was previously a reporter at the LA Weekly, where she covered crime for the last five years. In 2008 she won three Los Angeles Press Club awards, one for her investigative story on the Grim Sleeper.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com .
Police Debunk Theories Linking Breitbart, L.A. Coroner Tech Deaths - The Daily Beast
Breitbart witness: He dropped like sack of bricks
Describes 'thick white band' around forehead at death
Published: 7 hours ago
by Jerome R. Corsi
Jerome R. Corsi, a Harvard Ph.D., is a WND senior staff reporter. He has authored many books, including No. 1 N.Y. Times best-sellers "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command." Corsi's latest book is "Where's the REAL Birth Certificate?"More ↓
A man who witnessed the collapse of conservative media icon Andrew Breitbart, the founder of BigGovernment.com and other sites, said he collapsed like a “sack of bricks” and died with a “thick white band” around his forehead.
The testimony comes from Christopher Lasseter, 26, who was walking his dog outside the Brentwood Restaurant and saw Breitbart leave the eatery, cross the street and fall to the ground on the opposite side of the street.
On assignment from WND, Los Angeles private investigator Paul Huebl found Lasseter Tuesday evening.
In a video provided to WND and posted on YouTube, Huebl filmed the inside of the Brentwood Restaurant, showing the bar where Breitbart was in conversation with a Los Angeles marketing executive and drank a glass of wine before leaving the restaurant to cross the street.
Standing at the site where Breitbart died, Huebl conducted a videotaped interview with Lasseter.
Lasseter reported he noticed a big thick band of blanched white skin around the top of Breitbart’s forehead, extending around the hairline to the back of Breitbart’s head, that “made me do a doubletake.”
In the various reports of Breitbart’s death, WND is the first to report an eyewitness observed this thick white band around Breitbart’s forehead.
“There was a thick white band around his forehead all the way around his hairline, bright red face, thick, thick white band – made me make a double take,” Lasseter said.
He further described Breitbart’s face and skin as “bright red,” in a manner consistent with Huebl’s first interview with him, as Huebl initially reported on his blog.
Lasseter said he knew Breitbart was dead as soon as he walked up and looked; he shook off any suggestion he suspected foul play in Breitbart’s death.
At WND’s request, inquiries about the thick white band have been sent to noted board-certified forensic pathologists Michael Baden, former chief medical examiner for the city of New York, and Cyril Wecht, best known for his role as a critic of the Warren Commission’s conclusions in the JFK assassination; both Baden and Wecht have been responsive to WND-prompted inquiries in the Breitbart death.
Furnished with a transcript from the Huebl videotaped interview with Lasseter, Baden and Wecht were asked, “Does the thick white band give a further clue as to the cause of death?”
WND is waiting for Baden and Wecht to respond.
As Lasseter described the sequence of events, Breitbart jay-walked across the street at an angle.
Lasseter said he did not initially notice anything unusual about how Breitbart looked; he noted Breitbart was wearing a dress shirt, khaki pants, and a pair of Jack Purcell Converse shoes that Lasseter described as “preppy.”
When Breitbart reached the curb across the street, Lasseter said he observed, “Breitbart took one step up onto the curb and dropped like a sack of bricks.”
In response to Huebl’s question whether Breitbart said anything, Lasseter answered, “No. He was just growling, like a grumble as he passed away.”
He also noted that Breitbart expelled his last breath with a “guttural sound from the bowels of his stomach that didn’t sound good.”
Breitbart, according to Lasseter, was alone when he died.
An unidentified man called “911″ and administered CPR until the police arrived and took over; that is when Lasseter said he left.
TMZ suppresses eyewitness video
Huebl earlier sold a videotape of his first interview with Lasseter to TMZ.com.
WND asked Casey Carver, a spokesperson for TMZ.com, how much TMZ.com paid for the video interview and why TMZ.com had decided not to air the interview with Lasseter that TMZ.com purchased from Huebl.
Carver did not respond to WND’s inquiries.
WND has previously reported that Ohio-based private investigator Susan Daniels recruited a local private investigator to find Lasseter. The California-based private investigator tried without success to find a cell phone or landline phone number for Lasseter.
After determining that Lasseter lived with his parents, Thornton, 64, and Elaine, 56, at a Los Angeles address, the California-based private investigator visited the residence in person.
But he was unable to make contact, and a voice recording identified the residents by names other than Christopher, Thornton, or Elaine. At WND’s request, Huebl returned to the scene of Breitbart’s death and waited until evening, to see if Lasseter would return, walking his dog.
Breitbart witness: He dropped like sack of bricks
I'm glad that the great folks at World Net Daily are doing all they can to go over Andrew Breitbart's death with a fine toothed comb.
W
Andrew Breitbart died of heart failure, narrowing of artery, coroner finds
May 16, 2012 | 3:04pm
Conservative commentator and website editor Andrew Breitbart died of heart failure and had up to a 60% narrowing of a major artery, a Los Angeles County coroner's office report released Wednesday said.
The office ruled that the cause of Breitbart's death was heart failure and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with focal coronary atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.
Coroner's officials deemed the death "natural."
Breitbart collapsed near his Westwood home March 1. He was 43. Paramedics found Breitbart unable to breath and shocked him with a defibrillator four times. He was in full arrest and paramedics were administering CPR when he arrived in the emergency room at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The report noted that despite heroic efforts, Breitbart was declared dead at 12:19 a.m. In the report, authorities said that a year before, he had a congestive heart failure and began a course of diet and exercise. The report notes that Breitbart had flu two weeks before and "has been under a lot of stress."
PHOTOS: Notable deaths of 2012
Breitbart spent his early professional life helping edit the Drudge Report and later helped launch the Huffington Post. In 2005 he started his own news aggregation site, Breitbart.com, which was designed to counter what he described as the "bully media cabal" that he said ignored stories at odds with prevailing liberal orthodoxy.
His goal, he often said, was to "destroy the institutional left."
His big splash came in 2009, when he posted an undercover video in which a pair of conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend asked employees of the community group ACORN for help with a brothel that would house underage Salvadorans. ACORN was embarrassed when some of its workers seemed too helpful; Congress responded by defunding the organization.
Breitbart's mother-in-law, Alison Mills Bean, called Breitbart "one of the most genuine people I’ve met in my life.... He always spoke the truth of his heart and no matter what people agreed or disagreed with him he never wavered.
Breitbart is survived by his wife, four children, a sister and his parents, Jerry and Arlene.
Breitbart lived with his family in Westwood. He was adopted by moderately conservative Jewish parents and attended two of L.A.'s most exclusive private schools — Carlthorp and Brentwood.
Andrew Breitbart died of heart failure, narrowing of artery, coroner finds - latimes.com
Obama: The Groomed from Birth Dictator - Andrew Breitbart talked about by Jerome Corsi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmYuy...yer_detailpage
GOProud slams Meghan McCain for calling Breitbart ‘extremist’
Published: 3:27 PM 05/25/2012
By Caroline May - The Daily Caller
GOProud slammed MSNBC’s favorite Republican, Meghan McCain, Friday for comments she made on Al Sharpton’s “PoliticsNation” Thursday evening about Andrew Breitbart.
“Meghan McCain should be absolutely ashamed of herself,” GOProud co-founders Christopher R. Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia said in a joint statement.
“She went on a liberal network with a liberal host and demonized Andrew Breitbart. During his life, Andrew Breitbart did more for gay people, and showed more political courage on behalf of gay people, than Meghan McCain could ever dream of,” they said.
McCain referred to the recently departed Breitbart as an “extremist” who played into people’s “fears” and was involved in “hate” politics.
The MSNBC contributor touts herself as a moderate Republican and vocal gay rights advocate.
“When GOProud was just getting started and under intense fire from anti-gay forces within the conservative movement, Andrew Breitbart reached out to us and took up our fight as his own. Andrew showed real courage, standing up to the intolerance of some in the conservative movement,” LaSalvia and Barron added, noting that Breitbart was neither hateful nor extremist.
“Meghan McCain has made quite the career for herself picking fights with high profile conservatives and then going on liberal outlets to trash them. She picked a fight this time with a man who isn’t even alive to defend himself. As usual, however, this is a fight Meghan McCain has lost,” they concluded.
GOProud is a national organization of gay conservatives and their straight supporters. Breitbart served on the organization’s board and memorably hosted a party with the group during the 2011 CPAC conference.
GOProud slams Meghan McCain for calling Breitbart ‘extremist’ | The Daily Caller
Speech that got Breitbart assassinated by Obama (NDAA)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zS1CacgMWIs
Published on Mar 2, 2012 by iwillspyonyou
Speech that got Breitbart assassinated by Obama's NDAA
Speech that got Breitbart assassinated by Obama (NDAA) - YouTube
Obama can now rule by decree; he now has the NDAA to Indefinately detain Americans, Assassinate Americans; Disappear Americans;
AND any and ALL Political Opponents
Dont be Breitbart'd so easily America