Pair Lose Court Bid to Prevent Autopsy of Son

The parents of a 4-year-old Irvine boy who died Sunday in an apparent drowning lost their court bid Wednesday to prevent the county coroner’s office from performing an autopsy.

The autopsy took place Wednesday afternoon and work was completed in time for 3:30 p.m. services scheduled for the boy, Mark Strauss, a son of Bruce and Rawlene Strauss.

The Strausses, who are Orthodox Jews, argued that their religion would not permit an autopsy because it would mean mutilation of the body. But Superior Court Judge Richard J. Beacom agreed with the Orange County counsel’s office that state law gives the coroner’s office discretion to perform autopsies in cases such as drownings where the victim did not die a natural death.

Freedom of Religion Argued

Beacom told the family’s attorneys, who had based their argument on freedom of religion, that the court could interfere only if they could show there had been “an abuse of discretion.”

The Strausses were not in court on Wednesday.

Deputy County Counsel Gene J. Axelrod said the autopsy was performed almost immediately after the court issued the ruling so that the body would be ready for the services. He said the county counsel’s office cooperated with the family’s attorneys on that matter.

The boy died two days after his mother found him lying at the bottom of a bathtub filled with water. He had remained in a coma.

One reason an autopsy was important, Axelrod said, is that the doctor who had attended to the boy could not state a cause of death. The doctor would say only that no foul play had been involved.

Attorneys for the family unsuccessfully argued to Beacom that the doctor’s statement should be adequate to eliminate the need for an autopsy.

Attorneys for the family refused to comment on the issue.

Restraining Order Granted

In a rare Sunday court session, Superior Court Judge Leonard Goldstein had granted a temporary restraining order stopping the autopsy until a hearing could be held before Beacom on Wednesday.

“Orange County is growing, and we’re getting more and more people here with different religions,” Axelrod said.

“A lot of people could be asking for exceptions such as this because of religion. We are sensitive to the parents’ concerns about their child, but the coroner’s office felt that, with the facts in this case, an autopsy was necessary.”

Tests from the autopsy have not been completed, according to Lt. Dick Olson, Sheriff’s Department spokesman. He said, however, that that is not unusual in a case such as this.