IAPE Evidence Blog

The Ten­nessean (Nashville, Ten­nessee), MAIN NEWS
BYLINE: By, Chris Echegaray

David­son County,TN

For­mer David­son County and state med­ical exam­iner Bruce Levy worked out a deal Thurs­day on Mis­sis­sippi charges of pos­sess­ing more than 30 grams of marijuana.

Levy, 50, was placed on pre­trial diver­sion, with the pos­si­bil­ity that the charges will be dis­missed and the record expunged if he stays out of trou­ble for three years, said his Nashville attor­ney, David Ray­bin. He’ll be given ran­dom drug tests and must com­ply with stan­dard court pro­ba­tion rules.

Levy, who con­tracted to do autop­sies in Mis­sis­sippi, was arrested in March after a drug dog detected mar­i­juana in a pack­age bound for his Ridge­land, Miss., hotel by courier ser­vice. A search of the hotel room turned up more marijuana.

After his arrest, the Ten­nessee Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion looked into whether Levy had taken mar­i­juana from the state evi­dence room or from bod­ies brought in for autop­sies. The results were turned over to the David­son County dis­trict attor­ney, TBI spokes­woman Kristin Helm said.

The D.A.‘s office also researched whether Levy’s Mis­sis­sippi arrest com­pro­mised any crim­i­nal cases he tes­ti­fied in here.

Spokes­woman Susan Niland said no cases have been found to be affected.

Levy remains licensed

The TBI report is under review by the dis­trict attorney’s office, Niland said.

Levy had been David­son County and Tennessee’s chief med­ical exam­iner since 1998, pres­i­dent and CEO of Foren­sic Med­ical in Nashville and owned Global Foren­sics in Mississippi.

Levy still holds his med­ical license in Ten­nessee. The board that han­dles dis­ci­pli­nary action against doc­tors has not issued a notice of charges, state Health Depart­ment spokes­woman Andrea Turner said.

The Health Depart­ment can’t com­ment on whether there is an inves­ti­ga­tion pend­ing if no dis­ci­pli­nary notice has been issued.

Asked if Levy will try to con­tract again as a med­ical exam­iner in Ten­nessee, Ray­bin declined to comment.

Levy had been free on $25,000 bond and could have faced 20 years in prison if convicted.

Pre­trial diver­sions are com­mon with first-time offend­ers, said Jon Kala­har, spokesman for the Mis­sis­sippi Depart­ment of Pub­lic Safety.

Con­tact Chris Echegaray at 615 – 664-2144 or cechegaray@tennessean.com

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