Coroner Carl Parrott said he did not know Thomas Condon repeatedly photographed bodies inside the Hamilton County morgue until police notified him in January that they had found hundreds of negatives and photographs in Mr. Condon's studio.

        A short time later, the coroner suspended Dr. Jonathan Tobias, a 31-year-old pathology fellow in a one-year program at the morgue, for allegedly helping the Mount Auburn photographer gain access to the bodies.

Condon

Tobias

        “It was necessary — not just desirable — that we get Tobias out of ... the coroner's office,” Dr. Parrott testified Thursday in the trial of Mr. Condon and Dr. Tobias.

        The two men each face a dozen felony charges of gross abuse of a corpse. Charges of breaking and entering, theft in office and misdemeanor counts of abuse of a corpse have been dismissed. Prosecutors say Mr. Condon, 29, did not have permission to take hundreds of photographs of 14 bodies inside the morgue. The pictures were taken between August 2000 and January. Workers at a film-processing company called police after becoming suspicious when they saw the subject matter on Mr. Condon's negatives.

        The autopsied bodies were posed with objects such as a key, an apple, sheet music, syringes and a snail shell. Defense attorneys say Mr. Condon took the pictures as part of a photography project on “the cycle of life.”

        Dr. Parrott said he met Mr. Condon in March 1999, during the first of two meetings about the possibility of updating a training video of an autopsy.

        He said he saw Mr. Condon again in July 2000 during a second meeting on the proposed video.

Hamilton County Coroner Carl Parrott testifies Thursday during cross-examination before Judge Norbert A. Nadel. (Glenn Hartong photos) | ZOOM |

        Defense attorneys contend that Mr. Condon told Dr. Parrott at these meetings that he wished to take photographs of bodies for his project. They said Mr. Condon also showed the coroner picture books of similar subject matter.

        But on Thursday, Dr. Parrott said he could not remember Mr. Condon mentioning his desire to do a separate project.

        He said Mr. Condon was granted access to the morgue “on a time-limited basis” only to determine how much equipment would be needed to make a video and how much it would cost.

        Mr. Condon was allowed to attend an autopsy on Aug. 16, 2000, Dr. Parrott said. “But it was not part of my charge that he could take photographs of anything else he wanted,” he added.

        Police later recovered a video of that autopsy from Mr. Condon's studio.

        Dr. Parrott said he did not authorize Mr. Condon to videotape the autopsy.

        He said plans for a new video came to an end when Rhonda Lindemann, the coroner's office administrator, told him money for it was not in the budget.

        Under questioning from defense attorneys, he said he did not know whether Ms. Lindemann relayed his decision to other staff members at the morgue.

        Defense attorneys argued that supervising pathologists asked Dr. Parrott not to suspend Dr. Tobias because he had done nothing wrong. The defense said there was no policy in place at the morgue outlawing what had happened.

        “I don't care that there was no policy,” Dr. Parrott responded. “It was wrong. ... It was clear Dr. Tobias was involved in the matter.”

Parrott says he did not give consent
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