“I wondered why he quit,” Burkhardt said Thursday. “I always liked him. I thought what was so bad about this office that he would quit?”
After quizzing a few county leaders, Burkhardt found himself running the office within days. He has remained 31 years, and now at age 73, Burkhardt says he still loves the job. Last week was no different, despite the media spotlight outlining a federal investigation that led to his surrender of his federal license to write prescriptions.
The sage further detailed the investigation surrounding former Deputy Coroner Terrance Conti, which triggered a focus on him. What came out was what Burkhardt termed a minor mistake.
Burkhardt said he did write a prescription for a painkiller for one of his investigators who injured his foot when he fell off a porch at a scene.
The doctor says he did document that prescription, but said two prescriptions for Valium written for a office worker’s elderly father who was having difficulty sleeping were not documented.
“Yes, I should have documented it,” he said. “It’s all in here,” he added, pointing to his head.
“I am not sorry I wrote the prescription for him. I am sorry I did not document properly,” Burkhardt said.
Conti lost his job earlier this year after he was investigated for prescribing excessive amounts of painkillers for Burkhardt’s wife, Marilyn, at his private practice in Fairfield. She suffers from a back and neck condition. Conti also was was accused of writing prescriptions in the coroner’s name at Marilyn Burkhardt’s request.
Conti signed an agreement with the state medical board in February to give up his license to practice medicine for six months.
Burkhardt declined to talk about his wife and the drug allegations surrounding Conti. He said it had nothing to do with the coroner’s office, and that he did not know about Conti’s professional difficulties until his license was in jeopardy.
Conti worked in the office one day a week and was on call every other weekend as deputy coroner.
Since last week’s headlines, Burkhardt said he has had no calls for his resignation.
“I work for voters of Butler County,” he said. And he is not actively looking for someone to fill the remaining two years on his term.
“But if a qualified person would come forward, I would retire. That would make Marilyn happy,” Burkhardt said.
He admits he is not as hands-on as he was in his younger days, when he sometimes performed autopsies and often went to death scenes. Those duties are performed now by investigators and pathologists under his consultation and guidance.
Burkhardt said his health challenges have slowed him down, but he is by no means out.
Twenty years ago, Burkhardt had seven-way bypass heart surgery. He calculated how long he realistically could live after the surgery.
“By 1995 I figured I would be checked out,” Burkhardt said.
He called last week’s news embarrassing and said while he does not need to write prescriptions and has written only penned a handful since closing his private practice in 1992, “It makes me feel like half a doctor.”
A body switch of two women housed at the morgue a few years ago in which a family buried the wrong loved one was more embarrassing, he said.
“That effected families,” Burkhardt said.
While a coroner candidate has not come forward, Burkhardt said he will get some help soon. The office’s forensic pathologist Dr. James Swinehart will be sworn in as deputy coroner this summer.
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