A forensic pathologist is alleging she was forced out of her job at the Boulder County Coroner’s Office after refusing to change the manner of death finding in a case at the insistence of the county coroner.

Dr. Dawn B. Holmes is suing the office, as well as Coroner Emma Hall, for $2.69 million, plus attorney’s fees, for allegedly violating her contract with wrongful termination, according to the plaintiff’s complaint filed Monday in Boulder District Court.

Holmes alleges that Hall stopped scheduling her for autopsies before abruptly terminating her contract early after she had pushed for Holmes to change a manner of death finding in a case from 2017. In the complaint, Holmes goes so far as to call Hall’s conduct “reprehensible” and a violation of her duties as an elected coroner.

The coroner’s office said it has no comment on the lawsuit at this time.

Forensic pathologists typically stay with the same coroner’s office until they retire, according to Rachel Ellis, an attorney and owner of the firm representing Holmes, Livelihood Law, LLC.

“That was precisely the track that Dr. Holmes was on,” Ellis said. “So this is a significant loss of money.”

Holmes first entered into a contract with Boulder County in June 2016. She stayed on after the new year and renewed her contract in March 2017.

On June 5, 2017, Holmes performed an autopsy on a man who was found dead at the Circle Motel in Lafayette a few days prior. At the time, police reported the death as an “accidental self-inflicted shooting” to the Times-Call.

Holmes’ findings in this case, the complaint alleges, would spark the disagreement with Hall that would lead to her termination.

The autopsy found that the cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, which was reiterated in the final news release from the coroner’s office. Holmes spoke with police and the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office to explain that the manner of death would likely be suicide due to the reckless use of a deadly weapon.

The cause of death indicates the medical cause of death, while the manner of death categorizes the death as either natural, accident, suicide, homicide or undetermined.

Holmes finalized the report later in June, declaring the manner of death a suicide because it was self-inflicted, guns are known as deadly weapons and the “act of placing a loaded gun to the head and pulling the trigger can indicate an acceptance of a fatal outcome,” according to the complaint. She relied on standards from the National Association of Medical Examiners, which lists Russian roulette as an example of a manner of suicide.

Hall and Dustin Bueno, the chief deputy coroner, questioned the determination.

Holmes suggested that she could keep suicide on the autopsy report and Hall could put “accident” on the death certificate, or that Holmes could delete the manner of death with the caveat that Hall or Bueno determine the manner of death on all cases going forward, according to the complaint.

Hall, who was elected to the county coroner position, does not hold a medical degree.

Ellis, Holmes’s lawyer, said the disagreement itself wasn’t the problem.

“It’s important that everyone in this situation maintain their own professional role,” she said. “It’s not that the police and the doctor performing the autopsy never disagree, but it is improper for the coroner to ask the doctor to change the medical finding.”

Ellis also said that this is a “highly unusual” case. She doesn’t know why Hall “took a strong and strange interest in dictating how this was going to be handled,” but expects more information to come forward in the case.

Following the disagreement on the June 2017 case, Holmes alleges in the complaint that Hall “intentionally diverted” work away from her, violating her contract. Holmes was told there were no autopsies for her on her scheduled days multiple times throughout the summer, which was unusual, according to the complaint.

The complaint also says that another forensic pathologist, Dr. Dan Lingamfelter, allegedly told Holmes that Hall was intentionally delaying work at the coroner’s office until he was able to perform autopsies because Hall and Bueno were “uncomfortable” using Holmes until they could see how she handled the “manner of death situation.”

Early in August 2017, Hall allegedly asked Holmes to remove the manner of death from the autopsy report. Holmes asked that Hall or Bueno determine the manner of death on all cases going forward, which Holmes confirmed via email.

Three days later, on Aug. 10, 2017, Hall emailed Holmes to say her services would no longer be used “effective immediately,” which Holmes claims is a material breach of her one-year contract.

According to the coroner’s office, the final determination of manner of death in the June 2017 case was “accident.”

Madeline St. Amour: 303-684-5212, mstamour@prairiemountainmedia.com