Surgery professor Martin Schreiber filled 100 pages with his credentials as an expert witness used by the state to back Gov. JB Pritzker's ban on so-called "assault weapons." But Schreiber didn’t mention that Oregon Health and Science University placed him on administrative leave.
The "Willamette Week" website in Portland reported the school’s action against Schreiber on April 18, attributing the news to a person familiar with the matter.
The headline called Schreiber a "rain making trauma surgeon."
Reporter Anthony Effinger identified Schreiber as director of the Donald D. Trunkey Center for Civilian and Combat Casualty Care. Effinger wrote that the university credits the Trunkey Center for making it one of the top five trauma research programs in the U.S.
“It’s also a cash cow,” he wrote.
According to the university’s website, Schreiber was one of three doctors who brought in more than $28 million in federal and industry funds for the program.
“It doesn’t say if the figure is annual,” he wrote.
The university told "Willamette Week" it couldn’t comment and told the Record on June 10 it couldn’t comment.
A person who took a call at the number on Schreiber’s page of the university website on June 12 said he’s on leave for a bit.
Back in Illinois, during a hearing in May as part of court proceedings over constitutional challenges to Illinois' ban on so-called "assault weapons," U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn of East St. Louis asked Assistant Illinois Attorney General Christopher Wells about the administrative leave for one of the state's expert witnesses.
At that time, Wells said he learned about it in the preceding 24 to 48 hours.
McGlynn asked if the state would submit the expert’s declaration at trial and Wells said he didn’t know.
Wells ultimately filed Schreiber’s declaration on May 31.
Schreiber identified himself as division chief for trauma, critical care, and acute care surgery, as well as surgery professor and trauma medical director.
He stated the university cares for about 4,000 trauma patients a year and about 8% of them suffered penetrating injuries. He stated 163 patients injured by gunshots were treated last year. He also identified himself as an Army Reserve colonel and a soldier for 40 years.
He stated he was chief surgeon for a combat hospital in Tikrit, Iraq in 2005; that he was deployed to Central Command and a forward surgical team in Afghanistan and that he qualified with the 9 millimeter Beretta handgun and the M-16 rifle, the fully automatic cousin of the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle banned under the new Illinois law.
Schreiber stated the Army issued him a handgun for self defense. He stated war fighters carried weapons with capacity to kill numerous combatants quickly.
He stated it’s the military’s judgment that handguns are proper for self defense, while "assault rifles" are right for killing combatants.
Then Schreiber committed wholesale violation of a policy McGlynn laid down at a hearing where somebody said something about "assault weapons."
McGlynn said people disagree about the meaning of those words.
He said the words don’t appear in the law.
The judge recommended clearer language.
Schreiber stuck to "assault weapons" as his entire topic, using the words 25 times in 27 paragraphs across eight pages.
He wrote that in Las Vegas in 2017 an individual fired hundreds of rounds each minute for 11 minutes, killing 58 and wounding more than 800.
“According to news reports, the weapons utilized were primarily assault weapons utilizing bump stocks allowing them to fire at a rate similar to automatic weapons,” he wrote.
He noted that a shooter with a Smith & Wesson M&P15 rifle killed seven people in Highland Park and injured 48 others with 83 shots in a very short period.
He didn’t name the individual people who committed those acts.
“Descriptions of the injuries observed during the Las Vegas and Highland Park shootings are consistent with my own experience treating wounds caused by assault weapons,” he wrote.
“The mass casualties produced by assault weapons frequently exceed the capacity of civilian trauma systems to treat and have a very high mortality rate.”
Illinois is paying Schreiber $250 an hour.
"Willamette Week" reported on June 10 that Oregon Health and Science University permanently eliminated 142 positions and anticipated further eliminations.
Effinger wrote that the university has about 20,000 employees.
McGlynn has set a bench trial for the constitutional challenges to the Illinois gun ban starting Sept. 16.