State orders pathologist off autopsy duty

A state pathologist whose autopsy error forced prosecutors to downgrade murder charges against twin brothers from Ayer will not be allowed to examine any potential homicide victims until the Patrick administration completes a review of the state medical examiner's office.

Two days after a Middlesex Superior Court jury convicted Peter and Daniel McGuane of involuntary manslaughter rather than the murder charges prosecutors originally sought, Public Safety Secretary Kevin M. Burke said yesterday that he has restricted the work of Dr. William M. Zane, whose personal integrity and professional reputation were skewered by defense lawyers.

"As a former prosecutor, I am very cognizant of the need for this office to provide high-quality services," Burke, a former Essex district attorney, said in a statement issued late yesterday. "Our criminal justice system demands no less."

Zane could not be reached at the medical examiner's office.

A pathologist with the medical examiner's office since the 1980s, Zane concluded in 2005 that Kelly Proctor, 19, died of a brain injury as a result of a beating by the McGuane brothers after a July Fourth celebration that year. That conclusion, which Zane based on brain swelling he observed in an autopsy of the teenager, prompted prosecutors to charge the brothers with murder.

But last month, after Zane said he made a mistake in his analysis, prosecutors reduced the charges against the brothers to manslaughter. The pair were found guilty Tuesday of involuntary manslaughter.

A spokesman for Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. declined to comment last night.

The medical examiner's office is under scrutiny by the Patrick administration and by a Virginia-based consultant, Vance, after numerous problems were recently discovered, including the misplacement of the body of a Cape Cod man who was mistakenly buried in another man's grave and had to be dug up last month.

The chief medical examiner, Dr. Mark A. Flomenbaum, was suspended with pay May 3 as a result of the misplacing of the body.

The Romney administration hired him in early 2005 to correct other problems at the office, which had been investigated by state and federal authorities after one of the medical examiners, possibly Zane, sent the wrong set of eyes for testing during an autopsy.

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.