Shaken baby conviction dropped

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  Dec, 2004  

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A judge has ordered a new trial for a father convicted five years ago of shaking his 10-week-old son to death, citing problems with the autopsy.

Minutes after the judge ordered the new trial, Alan Yurko pleaded no contest to manslaughter. Circuit Judge Alan Lawson sentenced him to time served, allowing Yurko to be released from prison where he had been serving a life sentence in the death of his son, Alan Ream-Yurko.

Lawson criticized the autopsy conducted by Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner Dr. Shashi Gore, who ruled the child was shaken to death.

He also said that the fact that the autopsy had many problems was newly discovered evidence.

In February, the state Medical Examiner's Commission barred Gore from performing autopsies after it ruled he had committed at least eight mistakes in Alan Ream-Yurko's autopsy.

It was the harshest discipline ever in Florida against a chief medical examiner. The commission did not address Gore's finding that the infant had been shaken to death, which contributed to Yurko being sentenced to life in prison.

During a weeklong hearing, Yurko's defense team argued that Alan Ream-Yurko might have died in 1997 as a result of poor health, adverse reactions to vaccines and medical treatment mistakes.

The News Herald

Panama City, Florida

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