Testimony in Dr. Cyril H. Wecht's federal fraud trial seemed to end on a high note for his defense team despite the fact that the witnesses this afternoon were called by the prosecution.

Curtis Williams, who joined the Allegheny County coroner's office in 1996, said Dr. Wecht once bristled during a trip to the airport when Mr. Williams brought out the piece of paper that directed him to do the "Wecht detail" -- the nickname deputy coroners gave to the private jobs they were asked to do for the former coroner while on county time and in uniform.

"We were on our way to the airport and he got mad when I showed him that sheet," Mr. Williams testified. Dr. Wecht's ire apparently was over the fact that such information was put in writing and handed out, Mr. Williams said of the former coroner.

But Mr. Williams also portrayed Dr. Wecht as friendly, caring and helpful. He testified that he did not feel put out by running errands for Dr. Wecht and enjoyed his company.

John J. Smith, another former Wecht subordinate, said he felt "insulted" one time when Dr. Wecht gave him a mere $2 after a lengthy bit of chauffering he did for family members before his shift began at the coroner's office. However, under cross-examination, he acknowledged that it could have been a mistake on Dr. Wecht's part to pay him such a measly amount.

Mr. Smith also said he did not refuse to do errands for Dr. Wecht because he feared the possibility of retaliation. However, he later went on to say he was proud to work at the coroner's office under the celebrity forensic pathologist.

"He's a good man, sir," Mr. Smith told defense attorney Mark Rush.

Both Mr. Williams and Mr. Smith still work as forensic investigators for what is now called the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office.

Testimony ended this afternoon and will resume tomorrow morning.

This morning, a witness indicated Dr. Wecht displayed a callous side after a woman died when her car flipped off a Downtown parking garage.

When a senior manager tried to decide whom to send to the death scene and whom to dispatch on a personal errand for the former coroner, Dr. Wecht said, "just let them lay, they're not going anywhere," testified Richard Lorah, a forensic investigator with what is now known as the Allegheny County medical examiner's office.

Mr. Lorah also testified about doing odd jobs for Dr. Wecht in what became known in the coroner's office as "Wecht details."

Also testifying this morning was Lawrenceville funeral home director Daniel D'Alessandro, who said he felt compelled to file a "fictitious" death certificate for an Allentown man that indicated that no autopsy was performed, even though one actually was done.

Mr. D'Alessandro said the man, Charles Dumont, was not a coroner's case requiring an autopsy. The man's sister had been located and was planning a cremation.

However, Mr. D'Alessandro said he learned that the body was autopsied in what he later told the state Bureau of Vital Statistics was an "unauthorized, illegal" procedure.

Mr. D'Alessandro said he was told by a supervisor at the coroner's office that "someone in the back ordered the autopsy to verify the doctor's diagnosis. I took that to mean he was autopsied at the coroner's office."

In fact, the prosecution contends, the body was dissected at Carlow University. A document shown yesterday to jurors indicated the body was taken to the school for what another medical examiner's employee said was an autopsy.

The government has charged Dr. Wecht with 41 offenses. Among the allegations is that he traded cadavers for the free use of lab space at Carlow to conduct private autopsies for his pathology business.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

First Published: January 30, 2008, 9:00 p.m.