NWFdailynews.com by Tony Johnson
May 17, 2018
Andrea Minyard is seeking a non-monetary declatory judgement as to her rights under the various contracts that she has with the four counties.
Longtime District 1 Medical Examiner Dr. Andrea Minyard has filed a lawsuit against the four counties in the district, which she claims have no right to audit all of her office’s financial records.
Minyard has served since 2004 as the medical examiner for District 1, which encompasses Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties and is based in Pensacola.
The Pensacola law firm of Borowski & Traylor filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the First Judicial Circuit Court in Escambia County.
According to court records and an email that Okaloosa County Attorney Greg Stewart sent to other county officials on Tuesday, Minyard is seeking a non-monetary declaratory judgment as to her rights under the various contracts that she has with the four counties.
Stewart wrote that Minyard “seeks a determination of her rights as to (1) the manner that she charges for professional fees, (2) whether certain expenses fall under her professional fees or her salary related and administrative expenses category, (3) whether monies paid as part of her professional fees cease to be public funds once paid to her; (4) what records of her are public records as opposed to private records and (5) whether there is a right to audit her accounts.”
Stewart said he will try to work with the other counties in preparing a response.
The lawsuit was filed one day after the Tallahassee law firm that Stewart belongs to made a public records request to the state’s public records custodian for Medical Examiner Office records.
The request asks for 17 types of documents. They include documentation showing all sources of income related to the Medical Examiner’s Office from 2016 to the present.