Former Coroner Accused Of Lying In Texas Trial

CANYON, Texas - Prosecutors filed a complaint yesterday accusing ex-pathologist Ralph Erdmann of lying at a capital murder trial.

The aggravated perjury complaint is the latest legal problem for Erdmann, a former pathologist for 40 West Texas counties who now lives in the Seattle area.

Erdmann, 68, was arrested last week in Redmond on suspicion of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm after police found 122 guns in his home.

He was charged Monday with possession of a machine gun and pleaded not guilty Wednesday. He remains in custody in the King County Jail in Seattle on $100,000 bail.

Lubbock County put Erdmann on 10 years' probation in 1992 after he pleaded no contest to seven felony counts of falsifying autopsies. Critics claimed he botched and faked his work.

The complaint filed yesterday in Canyon says Erdmann lied during the 1992 trial of Johnny Lee Rey, one of five teenagers charged with capital murder in the death of Hilton Raymond Merriman Sr. Rey was convicted and sentenced to death, but the conviction was reversed on appeal.

Randall County District Attorney James Farren said Erdmann lied during the Rey trial about a previous autopsy.

And, Farren said, Erdmann was "certainly less than honest about the tissue samples he gathered that he claimed to have come from Mr. Merriman. We believe the evidence will show later that the tissue did not come from Mr. Merriman. It came from someone else, some much

younger person."

Aggravated perjury is a third-degree felony with a punishment of two to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

Farren said yesterday that prosecutors are considering filing additional charges of evidence tampering and forgery. Officials will present the case to a Randall County grand jury next week, he said.