A wide-ranging audit released Thursday of investigations into police-involved deaths in Maryland over many years under the leadership of Dr. David R. Fowler found three dozen cases that should have been classified as homicides but were not.

Fowler was the nationally known and well-regarded head of the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for 17 years, until his retirement in 2019.

His judgment came under intense scrutiny about two years later after his expert testimony in the high-profile case against the Minneapolis officer convicted of murdering George Floyd.

More than 400 medical professionals raised questions about Fowler’s testimony in defense of the officer, Derek Chauvin, eventually leading to the unprecedented audit in Maryland of nearly 90 in-custody deaths during his tenure.

Who is Dr. David Fowler?

Fowler led the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for more than 17 years, reviewing about a third of all deaths in the state that had been unattended or were suspicious.

The agency was the nation’s first centralized, statewide examiners’ office, and under Fowler gained a national reputation for quality work. Information was critical to prosecutors who relied on Fowler’s determinations on multiple high-profile cases.

One of the biggest cases during Fowler’s tenure was the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who died after he was in police custody in 2015, sparking protests in Baltimore.

The medical examiner’s office ruled it a homicide, concluding the ride in the back of a police van where Gray was placed shackled and unbuckled led to a fatal spinal cord injury. Prosecutors charged six officers but none were convicted.

But during Fowler’s tenure, the office also became inundated with cases stemming from the surge in opioid-related overdoses on top of continuing gun violence.

Fowler had agitated for more resources for the department, which was no longer the national gold standard. Eventually his office fell under threat of losing its accreditation because examiners were performing more than the recommended 250 autopsies annually.

Over the years, some families did complain that Fowler’s office had listed “undetermined” as a manner of death, rather than homicide. But the label didn’t seem to rankle others in the profession, at least not publicly at the time, who often cited Fowler’s precision and professionalism.

Where did Fowler come from?

Fowler earned a medical degree from the University of Cape Town in South Africa in 1983 and trained in general and surgical medicine and then in forensic pathology. The focus has drawn fewer medical students over the years, contributing to a serious shortage of professionals across the nation and in the Maryland agency he led.

Over time, Fowler was an advocate for the field, serving as an associate professor at the University of Maryland and as a visiting professor at universities in China and is a past president of the National Association of Medical Examiners.

A book released last year by Fowler’s executive assistant Bruce Goldfarb noted that Fowler didn’t personally perform autopsies, but oversaw them and set the tone. Fowler, he said, thought it more “intellectually honest” to label the manner of death undetermined when there was uncertainty.

But Goldfarb wrote that the testimony in the Chauvin case was stunning and in defiance of other experts. He said the blowback was “swift and fierce,” and the office was called racist in the news media. Goldfarb said he was tasked with listing deaths to revisit from tens of thousands of possible cases and selected 1,313.

What about Fowler now?

When Fowler retired, he said his plans were to travel with his wife and continue consulting, which he did, until the Chauvin trial.

Fowler continues to hold an active Maryland medical license, according to the Maryland Board of Physicians.

The Banner reached out to Fowler on Thursday but he did not immediately return a request for comment.