935
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
(202) 324-3000
April
8, 2014
To
Whom It May Concern:
We are formally
requesting that your office conduct an investigation into the death and
circumstances surrounding the death of our son, Alexander (Alex) J. Heitman. At
the time of his death, Alex was a two year resident of Knoxville, TN and an
employee of the Oak Ridge School District Business Office. On July 25, 2011, he
was found dead of a shotgun wound to the head in a remote part of Cocke County,
TN, a place where he had never been before which was located 67 miles from his
home and 80 miles from his intended destination that morning, his office at the
Oak Ridge School District Administration Building.
Questionable cause of death
From listening to
911 audio files, Alex’s death was presumed to be a suicide prior to the
discovery of his body and prior to the arrival of the coroner. This presumption
seems to be the only basis for the annotation (of suicide) on his final death
certificate. At the time, we were in shock because we had no reason to believe
he would commit suicide. To date, we have not been provided any evidence to
support this claim. Though we have made repeated requests to various offices, we’ve
received no documentation from any authority that indicates who made the initial
suggestion or final determination that Alex committed suicide.
We were told by
Cocke County Detective Richard Caldwell that they’d have to do an autopsy to
confirm what caused his death because they couldn’t determine the point of
entry and it appeared inconsistent with suicide. When we asked what he meant,
he said that someone else could have done this. In fact, in one of the calls
between Cocke County officials, a dispatcher reported to the Knoxville PD that
it appeared he was shot in the head and not the mouth, which contradicts the
autopsy findings.
Though
the autopsy was ordered because there
was a question of whether or not Alex’s death was a suicide, the autopsy report
does not attribute the cause of death listed (shotgun wound of head) to suicide
or homicide.
We
are also told by the man who reported finding Alex’s body to police, Nathan
Wilde, that he found evidence left at the scene the following day to include
portions of Alex’s brain and a shotgun shell casing. Without this evidence, we
fail to understand how any autopsy could prove to be conclusive. It would seem
impossible to definitively rule on the total number of shots fired or the angle
from which they were fired. We believe that an “inconclusive” finding, at the
very least, would have been more appropriate.
Missing
Documentation
Though
we’ve been advised by the Tennessee Open Records Counsel, Elisha Hodge, that we
are entitled to many of these documents, we’ve been unable to obtain or have
been denied access to the following:
1.
Ballistics and fingerprints: Even though we
were told by Cocke County Detective Richard Caldwell that a full investigation
was done, we were informed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations that no ballistics or fingerprints were ordered
by the District Attorney and therefore none were performed. We therefore have
no confirmation that the guns found at the scene were fired or by whom.
Furthermore, though the guns were willed to his father, to this day, Detective
Woods refuses to turn them over to us. He’d even told us at one point that they’d
been lost.
2.
Coroner’s Report: Terry Jarnigan was the coroner
who arrived on the scene. We’ve requested a copy of his report and have received
no response.
3.
The Medical Examiner’s Report and Photos. Both Knox
County Medical Examiner Dr. Steven Cogswell from UT Medical Center who
performed Alex’s autopsy and his supervisor, Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan have
refused us access to the autopsy photos and internal report. The basis of their
refusal is two-fold. First, they site ownership by Cocke County since they paid
for the autopsy. Second, they claim a concern that they would be lost in the
mail. Instead, they offer us the opportunity to view them in person, knowing
that we live in Wisconsin.
4.
Crime Scene Photos: We requested the complete set of unedited
crime scene photos of our son’s body and the surrounding evidence. Only after
many months of begging and pleading did Detective Derek Woods finally send us
some photos. To our dismay, we received what appeared to be doctored photos.
None of the photos show Alex’s face, the front of his body, the brain matter
that was avulsed around him or any blood. Most of the photos taken of the
surrounding area were missing all together.
5.
Full Police Report: Initially, we were provided
with an Incident Report and told that a full, final police report would be
forthcoming. We were never provided a final report.
6.
Documentation verifying who identified our son’s
body.
According to 911 audio files, his car did not have the proper license plates;
officers used the VIN number to verify his car. Neither of us (his parents) nor
his wife identified his body, which was subsequently cremated. We were
prevented by the funeral home staff from viewing his face.
Neither Cocke
County Baptist Hospital nor U.T. Medical Center has records stating who
identified his body. Pam at U.T. Medical Center told us that he’d been
identified at Cocke County Baptist Hospital prior to his arrival at U.T.
Medical Center. None of the documents they provided name a witness or provide
any type of signature.
7. No victimology was
conducted to determine motive and intent. Though we
are aware of stressors in Alex’s life at the time of his death, we are
unconvinced that they were enough to push him over the edge, especially
considering he was about to become a father; was pursuing his Ph.D. at the age
of 28 and had at least one pending job offer from what we understand. We are
aware that the days after his death, the Oak Ridge Police Department (ORPD) Chief
of Police Jim Akagi attempted to conduct interviews of Alex’s coworkers and
supervisors but was denied access by the schools’ Superintendent, Tom Bailey.
8. Complete call log from Cocke County Dispatch: Though we received some of the audio files we
requested, there appear to be some that are missing. Additionally, a number of
side calls were made between Cocke County dispatch and the officers on the
scene (“21” requests) which leave many gaps in the sequence of events. We’ve
been provided no documentation of those calls.
Significant
Errors in Official Records
The
few documents (death certificate, autopsy and delayed report of diagnosis) that
we have been able to access contain a number of errors:
1.
No time or approximate time of death/injury is listed
on any of the documentation.
2.
The
autopsy omits Alex’s legal first name entirely and refers to him only as
“John Heitman.” It appears that this error originated with the Baptist Hospital
of Cocke County. All of this hospital’s documentation lists him as John, even though
they correctly documented his date of birth and the fact that he was an organ
donor, both items would have been found on his driver’s license. It is
difficult to believe that this hospital or any of the Cocke County officials
treated our son with any level of dignity when we hear them state his given
first name of Alexander repeatedly on the 911 calls yet make such a blatant
error in all of the files about him. The coroner was at the scene and signed
off on some of these files. There is no logical reason he should have allowed
these errors to happen.
3.
The
autopsy lists Dr. Tim McConnell as the authorizing authority; all other
documents list the Cocke County ME’s name as “David H. McConnell, M.D.”
4.
The
autopsy under-reports his height by 3 inches (if actual height were
measured, this would indicate a significant portion of brain matter was left
behind as reported by the witness who returned to the scene the following day)
5.
The
Delayed Report of Diagnosis (which serves as the final page of the death
certificate and was completely handwritten) violated TN state law which
states that “All certificates and records relating to vital events must be
prepared on a typewriter with a black ribbon….no certificate shall be complete
and correct and acceptable for registration:
(b) That does
not supply all items of information called for thereon or satisfactorily
account for their omission” - The
Medical Examiner didn’t date his signature as required in box 26c;
(c) “That
contains alterations or erasures” - Alex’s
first name was added after the fact outside of the box
(h) “That contains improper or inconsistent data” - 31e Place of Injury states “home;” Alex’s home
was in Knoxville and his body was found 67 miles away in Cocke County.
6. Hospital documentation incomplete and
errors:
- Instructions for release of body lacked both a
physician’s and a witness’ signature and none of the criteria for autopsy were
checked (it appears that at least four were applicable).
- The
documents give us reason to question whether or not the Cocke County Medical
Examiner David McConnell ever actually examined Alex’s body. His signature is
lacking on the files and appears to have been forged by the coroner on the
actual Order for Autopsy.
reporting of and cooperation with investigations
Alex had been
cooperating with local law enforcement before his death. However, when we
initially requested information about these investigations, ORPD Chief Jim
Akagi denied Alex had ever been “in communication with anyone at the Police
Department” and Anderson County District Attorney Dave Clark denied his office
had issued any subpoenas for his “assistance in an investigation.” It took us two
years after his death to receive files both men denied existed.
ORPD reports and Anderson
County Court documents revealed Alex had
been subpoenaed at least six times the month preceding his death (June) regarding
a fraudulent check cashing ring that he’d initially reported to the Oak Ridge
Police Department involving one of the Oak Ridge School bank accounts. We have
been unable to determine if the originator of the checks has been charged or
answered for how she obtained the schools’ account and routing information, the
signature stamps of the superintendent and business director or the computer
equipment and software she used to print the checks. We also do not know who
else may have had access to this same information and equipment.
In fulfillment of these subpoenas, we question who
he may have been testifying in front of since the Grand Jury Foreman was/is the
Board of Education Chairman for the same school system who employed Alex.
We are also aware that a subsequent federal investigation was
to be initiated after some of the people were prosecuted because their pleas
involved agreements to “cooperate with federal authorities in a counterfeiting
investigation as a condition of probation.” We’ve been unable to learn of the
outcome of that investigation.
Alex was served with one final subpoena six days
before his death in July. We’ve been unable to verify what the subpoena was for
or if Alex was ever able to fulfil the requirements of that subpoena.
Oak Ridge School Financial Issues
We believe Alex may have been cooperating with
another investigation into the schools finances while working with the District
Attorney Dave Clark and other agencies. In a number of phone conversations (which
we documented) after Alex’s death, Mr. Clark led us to believe that he was
going to ask the TBI and possibly the FBI to investigate the business conduct
of the schools, their accounting department and the school superintendent. Though
Mr. Clark did eventually confirm (in an email) that he’d ordered a special
audit of the school finances after Alex’s death, he is now denying having ever
told us that he was going to pursue the aforementioned indictments.
We do know that Alex
was working on the 2011 audit when he died. He turned in his part the Friday before
the Monday that he died. In one of our conversations with Mr. Clark, he
informed us that Alex had refused to sign off the audit.
Alex was supposed
to be on vacation the week he died, but Bailey demanded that he come in that
Monday morning (the day of his death) for a meeting.
Mr. Bailey had
made some strange statements the day of Alex’s death. When Annette called him
to ask “Where is our son? What do you know?” he said he had not seen him that
day at all. Bailey said that they were in the middle of the audit and there
were some questions about 2-4 “procedural transactions.” He said that was what
the meeting was about, it was “nothing terrible, nothing criminal, nothing
fraudulent...”
Bailey’s responses
were eerily similar to what he said to the local papers after it was
known that Alex was dead: “Bailey said he and other school officials,
including Heitman and Karen Gagliano, the district's director of business and
support services, had in recent weeks met with auditors to discuss the annual
audit of the district's financial records. ‘At that point, it wasn't done but
it was excellent,’ Bailey said. ‘I had no concerns and I still have no
concerns, in my opinion, that would rise to the level of any activity that
would give me concern.’ http://www.oakridger.com/features/x555034347/Oak-Ridge-schools-deal-with-death-of-co-worker
Alex shared with
family that he was hired to clean up financial issues specifically concerning
the 2008 audit which had over $1 million in adjustments. He also shared a
number of concerns about the manner in which business was conducted within the
administration. Our discussions with one former employee, Lynn Hash, support
the claims Alex made to us. Some of those claims are very specific and, in our
research, we believe that we have found evidence that corroborate some of his
specific statements.
Oak Ridge School System 2010 Audit
Additionally, we have found a number of
concerns regarding the Oak Ridge School System 2010 audit. This particular audit
contains Alex’s signature and is the only on in at least a decade containing an
ORS employee signature other than Tom Bailey or Karen Gagliano (Alex’s
supervisors).
This
same audit was edited over three months AFTER Alex died as follows:
NOTE (B): Subsequent to the issuance
of the original FY 2010 financial statements in December 2010, management
determined that two federal awards involving ARRA funds totaling $948,744 (see page
113) were not included in the schedule of expenditures of federal and state
awards. Additional procedures as required by OMB Circular A-133 were performed
and these restated financial statements were issued effective November 11,
2011.
Alex had also been
revising policies and giving training to staff to combat fraud, waste and abuse
within the system based on negative 2010 audit findings. We have the Power
Points of one of these training sessions given in June 2011 that elaborates on
these findings. Samples pulled directly from this presentation developed by
Alex include:
“correction – not
cover-up….improper or no bids….deficit fund balances….inadequate collection
records…..bank deposits not made timely….purchase authorizations not completed
properly, dated after invoice…..inadequate separation of duties…invoice amount
does not equal check amount…collection records not prepared for all collections…
Findings Deserving Undivided Attention:
·
Cash/check ration in collection records did not
agree with bank
·
Receipts did not agree with collection logs
·
Money receipted does not reconcile with deposits
·
No deposits for October, February and June
·
Receipts could not be traced to deposit
·
Receipt totals not matched with deposit totals
·
Teacher receipts not issued to payee and had
wrong date
·
Invoice amount does not equal check amount”
Though he was publicly
praised for this training by Assistant Superintendent Ken Green, privately Mr.
Green severely scolded him for reasons he never understood.
The 2010 Audit
also contains a tremendous amount of changes with large debt bonds to include refinancing,
swaps, derivative interest swap ($15-$20M worth of bond swaps), and the
downgrading of one of the banks involved in a rate swap, Depfa Bank.
In closing, Alex
was a man of impeccable character who was extremely intelligent and had already
achieved a tremendous level of success at a very young age. Even so, he had
plans for an even brighter future. He was a loving husband who was
eagerly anticipating the birth of his first child and had gone so far as to
adjust his life insurance policy just a few weeks before his death.
In his work and cooperation with authorities, we fear that he may have trusted the
wrong person or identified someone that found out about these investigations.
We’ve faced extreme difficulties with local
authorities in our quest for answers to what happened to our son. We
reiterate our request that you open an investigation into the death of our son,
Alex Heitman to include the various government agencies that have a possible
connection to the events preceding and following his death.
We
respectfully ask that you please acknowledge your receipt of this letter and give
us the courtesy of indicating your intended course of action. Upon receipt of
your reply, we would like to coordinate the release of the documentation we
possess that verifies the statements made in this letter.
Sincerely,
Donnie
& Annette Heitman
CC:
Wisconsin
State Senator Luther Olsen
P.O.
Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707-7882
Tennessee
State Senator Stacey Campfield
(Represents
the district of Alex’s former home in Knoxville)
Tennessee
State Senator Randy McNally
(Represents
the district of Alex’s former employer in Oak Ridge)
U.S.
Senator for Wisconsin Ron Johnson
328
Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5323
455
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510
(202)
224-4944
Oak Ridge
Tennessee
Congressman Chuck Fleischmann
200
Administration Rd. #100, Oak Ridge, TN 37830
Phone: (865) 576-1976 Fax: (865)
576-3221