Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr. say that they hired Dr. Jackson Gates to perform an autopsy on their son, Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr., who died during a botched delivery. Gates took a video of the autopsy and posted it to Instagram without their permission, they said. (Image of Ross and Taylor: Family handout; screenshot of Gates in a 2020 video from his YouTube account, The Institute of Pathology and Laboratory Medical Science)
A Georgia judge entered a default judgment against a doctor on Wednesday, saying that the man did not respond to the complaint that he posted a video of a dead, decapitated baby to Instagram, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The court will later decide how much money the respondent, Dr. Jackson Gates, and his company, Medical Diagnostic Choices, must pay.
The plaintiffs, Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr., sued last year, saying they had hired Gates to perform an autopsy on their son, Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr. They have sued the delivery doctor Dr. Tracey St. Julian, the nurses, and Southern Regional Medical Center in the city of Riverdale.
They argued that St. Julian botched the delivery, decapitating their baby when his shoulders got caught in the mother’s vaginal canal.
They also accused St. Julian and hospital workers of trying to keep them in the dark about what happened.
“The complaint alleges that this false information was given to avoid a forensic autopsy and to obstruct the gathering of evidence,” a plaintiff statement said. “Furthermore, the complaint alleges that health care providers at the hospital pressured the young couple to cremate their baby in an attempt to destroy evidence.”
It was only on July 13, 2023, several days after delivery and a day after Ross left the hospital, that staff told them about the decapitation, the plaintiff’s statement said.
Enter Dr. Jackson Gates. According to a separate complaint filed on Sept. 1, Ross signed a contract with him on July 12, 2023, to do the autopsy.
The lawsuit said that he posted on July 14 a video that “showed in graphic and grisly detail a postmortem examination of the decapitated, severed head of Baby Isaiah.”
Gates took it down but then, on July 21, put up two more, according to the complaint. Again, these allegedly showed the autopsy in horrific detail.
“The plaintiffs were informed about the posting of these videos on social media, resulting in the plaintiffs experiencing feelings of shock, anger, humiliation and outrage,” the complaint stated.
A plaintiff’s statement said they had paid Gates $2,500 for the autopsy.
Ross and Taylor Sr. sent a cease and desist letter through their attorneys on Aug. 10, telling Gates to take down the videos.
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