Video: Family Files Half-Million Dollar Claim

On Wednesday, another family filed a half-million dollar damages claim against the Medical Examiner's Office.

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne was the first to expose what was known around the morgue as the "Stanley Project."

CLAIMS FILED Claim Filed By Virginia Hendricks [pdf file] Claim Filed Against King County [pdf file]

The Stanley Medical Research Institute of Bethesda, Md. and King County had a decade-long relationship, one that we first made public last month.

The county would harvest brains of mentally ill patients and send them to Stanley. In return, that private company sent King County around $1.5 million in grant money.

Our investigation raised serious questions about how the county went about gaining consent from grieving loved ones.

A growing number of those families have now hired attorneys to get to the bottom of this brain business.

MORE ON THIS STORY 'Excellent Brains' E-Mail [pdf file] Lawsuit Filed Against Stanley Institute [pdf file] Medical Examiner's Statement On KIRO 7 Report Public Health Director On KIRO 7 Report

Jim Green died a sudden and mysterious death at 36 years old. The day of the funeral, a pathologist from the King County Medical Examiner's Office called his mother, Virginia Hendricks.

"We talked for a little while, then she just asked if I would give consent to give a portion of his brain tissue," Virginia Hendricks said.

Halsne: "They didn't make it clear they were going to take the whole thing?" Hendricks: "No, just tissue is all they were asking for."

Hendricks says she now feels "tricked" into giving consent. Until we told her, she was unaware that the Medical Examiner's Office was profiting by sending whole brains -- and reams of private medical records to the Stanley Institute. Hendricks never signed any consent forms.

"That's scary they can do something like that."

Wednesday, Virginia's attorney Steve Bulzomi filed a $500,000 damages claim that states "The Stanley Medical Research Institute paid King County for the unauthorized, illegal, and immoral removal and shipment of James Green's brain."

This is the second damages claim filed against King County since a KIRO Team 7 Investigation raised questions about human tissue consent procedures here.

In an interview several weeks ago, Health Department Chief Dr. Alonzo Plough defended the county's methods.

"The families provided informed consent, this was done over the telephone," Dr. Plough said. "It involved extensive conversations between the medical doctor and the family, if there were any questions. There was no attempt to obscure any part of this very important study."

When someone wants to sue a governmental agency like King County, the first process is to file a "damages claim" with the county council.

After 60 days, unless the county pays victims -- what's now $1 million dollars -- the case can go in front of a judge.