Pierce County Faces $3.5 Million Claim Widow Of Former Tacoma Mayor Upset Over Polaroids Of Corpse

The widow of former Tacoma Mayor Jack Hyde filed a $3.5 million claim Thursday against Pierce County over the handling of her husband’s body by the office of the medical examiner.

And a niece of the late Gov. Dixy Lee Ray said she has scheduled a meeting Monday with a lawyer to discuss her options.

Unauthorized Polaroid snapshots of the bodies of Ray and Hyde were among photos of corpses found in the desk of a fired autopsy assistant, who reportedly bragged to a visitor that he had the last photo taken of Ray, who died in 1994. Pierce County officials say the photographs were unauthorized.

The county has 60 days to consider Hyde’s claim. If it is rejected, her attorney, Judith A. Lonnquist of Seattle, can proceed with a lawsuit.

Ray’s niece, Karen Reid of Fox Island, said she was meeting Monday with lawyer Joel Cunningham.

Civil claims for outrage are “very rarely allowed,” Cunningham said.

“It really has to be outrageous conduct,” he said, adding that from what he had read, “It sounds like this is it.”

While monetary damages likely would be sought, he said, the primary focus likely will be “getting an apology for the family” and assurances that “this never happens again.”

The photographs were used in county settlement negotiations with the worker, Eberhard Bruell, who late last year settled his $500,000 discrimination claim for $140,000, County Executive Doug Sutherland has said. Bruell’s lawyer denies the photos were an issue in the case.

Hyde’s widow, Jacquie Hyde, said in a Thursday interview she had been unaware her husband’s body was subjected to an autopsy or photographed.

And she said she was devastated by the use of the photos to reduce county liability.

“I’d like a full investigation of the county,” Jacquie Hyde said.

“These photographs were used as a tool in a settlement negotiation,” she said, so the issues “certainly have extended beyond the medical examiner’s office.

“I’m terribly outraged at the fact that … his picture was used and that I have never been notified that a photograph was even taken,” said Hyde, whose husband died Jan. 17, 1994, after just 17 days in office.