USA-CINCINNATI – Hamilton County can be sued because a morgue attendant had sex with female corpses while at work, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
Kenneth Douglas admitted in court that he sexually abused three corpses while he was drunk or on drugs, but he had sex with up to 100 bodies, he said in a deposition.
"I would just get on top of them and pull my pants down," said Douglas, who worked the night shift at the morgue from 1976 to 1992.
A jury might conclude the former coroner and morgue director failed "recklessly and wantonly" to supervise Douglas, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday in allowing the suit to continue.
The panel cited evidence that Douglas' supervisors were aware he was drinking and also having sex with live women while on the job.
Douglas' wife testified in a deposition that he reeked of sex when she picked him up from work. She said she called the coroner's office and reported him, but the morgue supervisor told her to stop calling.
The families of the three victims sued the county in 2012.
Douglas, now 60, was convicted of gross abuse of a corpse in the cases of Karen Range, Charlene Appling and April Hicks in 1991 and 1992
