Investigation into autopsies performed by embattled ex-Ramsey County medical examiner enters final phase
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Ramsey County Attorney's Office says it's honing in on seven autopsies performed by former county medical examiner Michael McGee amid a yearslong investigation.
County Attorney John Choi launched a review in 2021 of 215 autopsies performed by McGee during his tenure between 1985 and 2019, the year he resigned.
Choi made the move following the decision to overturn the death sentence of prolific sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez in the 2003 murder of Dru Sjodin due to McGee's involvement in the trial. North Dakota appeals court Judge Ralph Erickson accused McGee of "guessing" on the witness stand, and delivering "unreliable, misleading and inaccurate" testimony. Rodriguez's murder sentence still stands.
Several punishments from cases involving McGee's reports and testimony have already been changed or thrown out entirely. In some cases.
Investigation enters final phase
Choi tasked the nonprofit Prosecutors' Center for Excellence to head the inquiry. In a joint press conference on Wednesday morning, Choi and Kristine Hamann, the center's founder and executive director, announced the creation of a panel comprised of three "esteemed medical examiners" from outside of Minnesota.
The trio, which they say has no connection to McGee, will do a "deep dive" into his conclusions in those seven cases.
Hamann said in the first two phases of the investigation, they examined whether McGee's testimonies or reports on the cause and manner of death may have been "erroneous or misstated, and contributed to a defendant's conviction."
Investigators scoured through trial and grand jury transcripts, medical examiner files, crime scene photos, police reports and complaints, appellate decisions and more.
They concluded that in the majority of the cases, the cause and manner of death weren't an issue. And in dozens of cases, McGee was found to have had little involvement.
Hamann stressed her group hasn't made any conclusions on the remaining cases.
"They need to have further review by medical experts to understand the significance and the impact that (McGee) had on those seven cases," Hamann said.
Choi and Hamann gave no specific timeline for phase three's completion.
Cases so far where defendants were exonerated, granted reduced penality
Since 2011, some of McGee's work in more than a dozen Minnesota counties, and even some Wisconsin counties, has faced scrutiny.
In an interview last year with WCCO's Esme Murphy, Choi said it all began with the 2011 exoneration of Michael Hanson, a Douglas County man convicted of second-degree murder in the 2004 death of his infant daughter.
"There was a judge in Douglas County who had come to the conclusion that, in an infant death case, (McGee's) conclusions were false or misleading," Choi said. "So because of that we did a very narrow review around infant death cases and we found a number of things. We found that Dr. McGee hadn't been connected to the latest research on that topic, and he wasn't participating in the Association of Medical Examiners."
In 2016, McGee testified in the trial of another Minnesota man who was eventually convicted of murdering his infant. In March 2024, Robert Kaiser's conviction was overturned by the Minnesota Supreme Court after new evidence came to light about a serious brain condition that was originally overlooked. McGee wasn't specifically noted in this year's ruling.
In 1998, Thomas Rhodes was convicted of murdering his wife, Jane Rhodes, largely from McGee's testimony.
Jane Rhodes drowned in Spicer's Green Lake after falling overboard during a late-night boat ride with her husband.
McGee stated in his testimony during the trial that he believed Thomas Rhodes had grabbed her neck, shoved her off the boat, and then drove over her several times.
In January 2023, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison vacated Thomas Rhodes' two murder convictions and converted them into a single second-degree manslaughter conviction, leading to his release from prison.
Ellison's decision rested on new evidence that suggested an accidental fall was unlikely the cause of Jane Rhodes' death.
Days after his release from the Moose Lake correctional facility, Thomas Rhodes sued McGee.
