Joshua Perper, the Broward medical examiner who autopsied Anna Nicole Smith, said on Wednesday that he is retiring effective Oct. 30.
Perper made the announcement a week after Gov. Rick Scott rejected a recommendation to reappoint him to the position he's held for the past 17 years.
Perper told NBC Miami that he tried several times to get in touch with someone in Scott's office to get an explanation, but he was never contacted back.
"I decided enough with games," Perper said. "Obviously, the governor's office is not interested in providing an explanation."
In a
letter dated Sept. 6, which was sent to Scott, Perper wrote .."... I decided to resign my position effective October 30, 2011, and therefore my reappointment process is to be cancelled."
Perper also wrote a letter to Bertha Henry, the county administrator, submitting his request for reitrement.
A telephone call to Scott’s office seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.
"I greatly appreciate the communication received from your staff that you did not dismiss me from my official position, ask for my resignation, or reject my appointment. However, your decision to single me out of a group of other Florida Medical Examiners, by asking for the submission of additional names, has obvious negative connotations," Perper wrote in the letter to Scott.
Scott's decision was announced at a meeting of the Florida Medical Examiners Commission in Tampa, where eight other district medical examiners were reappointed, according to The Miami Herald.
The only name recommended to Scott for Broward was Perper's. He asked the commission to give him additional names for consideration.
"I am deeply disappointed that my repeated requests for an explanation of your decision were not answered, and for the life of me I cannot understand why the reason (s) for it must be shrouded in secrecy," the letter said.
The 78-year-old Romanian-born doctor came to fame during the 2007 examination into the death of Smith, who died after her lifeless body was found in a room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood.
Perper said after he retires he may get involved with writing and medical legal consultation.
"But I must say, I love my work in the medical examiner's office in Broward," he said. "I found my work always very exciting and very interesting."
Perper's office also presided over the 1995 autopsy of model Krissy Taylor and 2003 autopsy of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler, who collapsed during Spring Training.
