Dr. Jonathan Tobias could have avoided prosecution and his subsequent conviction if he had helped build a case against his co-defendant, Thomas Condon, said Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen.

        Now the former morgue pathology fellow's medical license is in jeopardy. He was convicted Oct. 16 of two counts of gross abuse of a corpse for helping Mr. Condon gain access to the morgue so Mr. Condon could photograph autopsied bodies posed with inanimate objects.

Tobias

        “From the very beginning we were surprised that we were not approached by counsel for Tobias about working with us in the prosecution of Mr. Condon,” Mr. Allen said Friday.

        “There was a very good chance that if he had worked with us as a state's witness he would have avoided prosecution.”

        Dr. Tobias' attorney, Marc Mezibov, said prosecutors did not offer his client immunity. Even so, he said, the notion of a deal supports his belief that Dr. Tobias was sacrificed to atone for administrative errors in the morgue.

        In January, shortly after police seized hundreds of negatives of autopsied corpses posed with objects such as sheet music, books, an apple, and a snail shell from Mr. Condon's Walnut Hills photo studio, Dr. Tobias was suspended by Coroner Carl Parrott.

        He later resigned.

        “We were prepared to present evidence in pre-trial motions that he was suspended because he refused to talk to police,” Mr. Mezibov said.

        “It now appears that Dr. Tobias is and was a scapegoat ... further punished, not because of anything he did, but for what he failed to do in helping the prosecution and in failing to waive his constitutional rights.”

        Mr. Mezibov said the state medical board has contacted his office, but he has yet to speak with any licensing officials about his client.

        Mr. Condon was convicted Oct. 16 of eight counts of gross abuse of a corpse.

        Defense attorneys argued during trial that Mr. Condon had permission to be inside the morgue, and that Dr. Parrott knew what he was doing.

        Mr. Condon originally was supposed to film an updated training video of autopsy procedures, but when the plan was scrapped, administrators failed to rescind his access to the morgue. He took his photos for a personal project about death.

        Morgue staffers believed he was supposed to be there, according to court testimony.

        But information obtained from the prosecutor's office through an Open Records request detail statements Mr. Condon gave to police that contradict the defense contentions.

        On Jan. 10, after detectives had searched his photo studio and were beginning to search Mr. Condon's car, Cincinnati Police Specialist Jennifer Luke asked him: “Did Dr. Parrott know what you were doing?”

        Mr. Condon answered: “No.”

        “How did you know when to go to the morgue? Did Jonathan and/or (staff pathologist Dr. Gary) Utz call you?” Specialist Luke asked.

        “They would call me, or I would drive by the morgue and see one of their cars and they would let me in,” Mr. Condon said.

        Mr. Condon's attorney, H. Louis Sirkin, declined to comment on these statements Friday. Mr. Mezibov also declined to comment on the statements.

        Mr. Allen said Dr. Utz was cleared of any wrongdoing.

        Prosecutors did not introduce these documents at trial because they wanted to try Dr. Tobias and Mr. Condon together. Otherwise, the two would have been tried separately.

        Common Pleas Judge Norbert Nadel could review these documents to determine sentences for the pair. Sentencing for both is Dec. 13.

        The statements also could be presented to appeals judges.

        Both men are named in a class-action lawsuit filed by survivors of those in Mr. Condon's photos.

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