Daughter Blocks Autopsy on Man Who Died After Mugging

Claiming that her family’s religious rights have been violated, a Los Angeles Jewish woman received a one-day restraining order Wednesday blocking an autopsy on her father, who died last week from injuries suffered during a mugging.

The children of Paul Reznek, who died Feb. 14 at the age of 83, said that the county medical examiner’s handling of their father’s case already has prevented an immediate burial as is called for by Jewish law.

In the request for a restraining order, Reznek’s daughter also argued that the autopsy is unnecessary because, she said, authorities have expressed doubts over whether there will be a criminal trial in the case. There are no suspects and police say the chances of finding one are slim, said the daughter, Dorothy Reznek, 40.

Minutes before the 12:30 p.m. autopsy was scheduled to begin, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Yaffe issued the temporary restraining order on the grounds that incisions made during the examination might violate religious guidelines about desecration of the dead and that a forensic examination is not likely to produce significant new findings, according to Reznek’s son, Phillip.

The final decision on whether to conduct the autopsy will be made at a hearing scheduled for today. Until the matter is decided the body will be held at a local funeral home.

Deputy County Counsel Richard Townsend, the attorney representing the medical examiner’s office, said he has not heard of any other case in which a restraining order based on religious reasons prevented the autopsy of a homicide victim.

The medical examiner’s office has insisted that the autopsy is necessary in the event that a suspect in the case is found. Because Reznek apparently died of complications from injuries he suffered during the mugging, charges in the crime could include murder, the attorney said.

Without an autopsy report, prosecutors probably will not have enough evidence to charge Reznek’s assailant with murder, Townsend said.

But family members said that the medical records kept from the day of the assault clearly show the connection between a hip injury that Reznek suffered in the incident and his death. Reznek had been hospitalized since the attack on Dec. 12, 1989.

Reznek was mugged in downtown Los Angeles while returning to his Westside home after unsuccessfully trying to buy a monthly bus pass. He was thrown to the ground, and his assailant took a wallet with credit cards, traveler’s checks and cash, authorities said.

The impact of Reznek’s fall broke his left hip, authorities said. He underwent an operation and, although his condition had stabilized somewhat, he and his family felt that death was imminent, Dorothy Reznek said.

Before Paul Reznek died, he and his family raised objections to an autopsy and a religious waiver form was filed with the medical examiner, the daughter said.

The family was told that the body would be released after a brief “physical examination” and that no incisions would be made, she said.

“All along the detectives had been strongly recommending that an autopsy be conducted,” Dorothy Reznek said. But after reviewing hospital records, police detectives agreed with the family that the autopsy was unnecessary.

“The evening my father died, the police investigators told me that a sufficient ‘paper trail’ based on doctors’ reports would provide everything that an autopsy would provide,” she added.

Family members also have expressed concerns about how the police investigation into the mugging was handled. Dorothy Reznek claimed that a cursory initial investigation into the robbery has reduced the likelihood of finding a suspect. Police did not interview her father, she said.

“I have no hope that they will ever find anyone, or that true justice will be served in this case,” she said.

Given the problems with the case, Reznek said, the coroner’s interest in pursuing the autopsy for the sake of bringing Reznek’s assailant to justice is all the more frustrating.

“The (coroner’s officials) seem to have completely lost sight that there was a human being involved here at one point. My father seems to have been lost in the shuffle. All we want to do is take him home.”