Definitely NOT World's Greatest Boss

Coroner's deputy: As body hanged, I ran errands

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A deputy coroner testified Wednesday that she was delayed in getting to a public suicide victim because she had to make personal deliveries for her high-profile boss, who is being tried on suspicion of using county staff to benefit his lucrative private practice.

Darlene Craig said a supervisor told her to deliver documents or other items for then-Coroner Cyril Wecht as she left for the suicide call, which was a half-hour drive from the coroner's downtown office.

"So I made those three deliveries before I actually went to the hanging," Craig testified. "And the body was hanging outside."

"Literally hanging?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Stallings asked.

"Yes," Craig said.

Wecht, 76, built a multimillion-dollar practice that has spawned books and television appearances by inquiring into the deaths of Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey and Vincent Foster, among others.

He is charged in a 41-count indictment with using his Allegheny County staff as bookkeepers, secretaries, couriers and gofers for his private practice and his family. Wecht, who earned no more than $64,000 a year as county coroner, resigned when he was indicted in January 2006.

Another deputy, Richard Lorah, said Wecht intervened when a supervisor was debating whether to send Lorah on a Wecht errand or to the scene of a woman killed when her car was driven off a parking garage.

"They're not going anywhere; just let them lay there," Wecht said of the victim, according to Lorah.

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Schmuck. I think this guy's been on Oprah. Hey, does this guy look a little like Ray Milland?