Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)

January 19, 1990

CONFIDENTIAL COPY OF AUTOPSY REPORT ON FRANCKE DEATH RELEASED TO FAMILY

Author: PHIL MANZANO - of the Oregonian Staff

The Marion County district attorney released a copy of an autopsy report on slain Corrections Director Michael Francke to his family Thursday, ending a four-month legal battle over the issue.

Also Thursday, Francke's older brother met for an hour and a half with District Attorney Dale Penn to discuss the status of the investigation and came away encouraged that a year later the case was being pursued vigorously.

``I thought it was dead-ended,'' said Patrick Francke, who lives in Lenexa, Kan. ``I don't feel that way anymore.''

He would not comment on the autopsy report except to say it answered many questions for him and contained no surprises or blockbusters. He echoed other officials' comments earlier in the investigation that there was no mutilation to Francke's body.

``I can't reveal details,'' another brother, Kevin Francke of Port Charlotte, Fla., told the Salem Statesman-Journal. ``But one thing was apparent -- my brother was killed by someone who knew what they were doing with a knife.''

Under a court-approved agreement, Francke's family received one copy of the report. The family is prohibited from making copies or disclosing any information from it. If they violate the agreement, they could be held in contempt of court, which is punishable by fine or imprisonment.

``I'm aggravated that it took this long to get it,'' Kevin Francke said. ``It irritates me we had to spend all this time and money to get something that is usually given to other families as a common courtesy.''

Michael Francke, 42, was the director of the Oregon Department of Corrections when he was stabbed to death Jan. 17, 1989, as he was leaving his office in Salem. No one has been charged in what has become the largest murder investigation in state history.

In addition to receiving the complete autopsy report, the family will receive the medical examiner's report and the laboratory test report. The court order also will allow the family to release the autopsy report if there is an indictment in the murder or if the case is not solved a year from Thursday.

Francke's parents -- Helen and Edward of Prairie Village, Kan. -- sued the state medical examiner, Dr. Larry V. Lewman, to obtain a complete copy of the autopsy report. They claimed they were entitled to it under an Oregon law that grants autopsy reports to family members.

But Penn blocked the move, citing an Oregon public records law that allows him to withhold documents generated during the course of a police investigation. He feared the Francke investigation could be jeopardized by releasing the report to the family because confidential information may be made public.

Penn had given Francke's family a heavily edited copy of the autopsy report with pages missing and large sections blacked out.

Shortly after the murder, Penn said the autopsy revealed that Francke died from a single stab wound to the heart and he suffered other undisclosed wounds. Penn and Lewman have said in the past that rumors of mutilation were untrue.

Marion County Circuit Judge Robert McConville ruled in September that releasing the full autopsy report depended on who ordered the report. If it were ordered by Penn, he could deny its release. If Lewman ordered the report, the family could obtain the report.

That question was never resolved.