By Jake Sandlind
Democrat-Gazette Staff Writer

Guam has withdrawn it's offer of chief medical examiner position to Dr. Fahmy Malak because of the controversies that surrounded the former Arkansas medical examiner, a Guam newspaper reported Tuesday. "The cloud of controversy over Malak outweighed any consideration of him for the job," the Pacific Daily News quoted Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson, attorney general and head of the search committee, as saying.

Guam is a U.S. trust territory island in the Pacific.

Malak had been offered the $160,000 a year job in July. But a series of ensuing articles in the Pacific Daily News about Malak's disputed autopsy findings and inconsistencies on his resume caused a delay in approval of the hiring so Malak could respond. Malak resigned Sept. 10, 1991, after 12 years as state medical examiner after criticism for allegedly mishandling autopsies and inaccurate court testimony. He immediately was hired for $70,000 a year by the state Health Department to conduct research on sexually transmitted diseases. Early this year, he was appointed the department's laboratory medical consultant at the same salary.

Shannon Murphy, a Daily News reporter said Tuesday night that Malak's application was rescinded Monday by the Post-Mortem Examination Commission, which will hire a new medical examiner. Malak, "seemed to have the background, but he may find himself in a credibility maze while being cross-examined in the courtroom," Barrett-Anderson told the Daily News.

Malak had applied for the job in December 1991. He was interviewed in June in San Francisco. Murphy said commission members told her that in his interview, Malak mentioned "being caught in something political" in Arkansas. On his resume, Malak stated he had held an associate professor's post at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences while state medical examiner, the newspaper reported. Malak had actually been an unpaid clinical assistant professor at UAMS, it was revealed during further checks by Dr. Hee-Yong Park, Guam's retiring medical examiner.

Reproduced with Permission