At a news conference yesterday, Geoffrey Fieger also said that some relatives of Loretta Peabody would not cooperate with an Ionia County grand jury's investigation into her death.
In harsh terms, Fieger condemned Ionia County Prosecutor Raymond Voet and Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thompson, saying they were harassing Kevorkian and Peabody's family.
"In Michigan, and perhaps elsewhere, patients autonomy and privacy is protected," Fieger said. "In the case of Loretta Peabody, her privacy was violated by Dick Thompson and the Ionia County persecutor.
"Do you think she was the victim of herself, or her sister or her father?" Fieger said. "Mr. Voet is being disingenuous and dishonest. ... The family of Loretta Peabody is not going to participate in the harassment of Dr. Kevorkian."
Peabody died Aug. 30, and a death certificate filed four days later by her physician, Dr. Douglas Poff of Lyons, ruled the 54-year-old woman died of natural causes. No autopsy was conducted, and her body was cremated.
Voet's investigation stems from a Sept. 6 raid by Royal Oak police of a meeting between Kevorkian and a Fresno, Calif., woman. That woman, Isabel Correa, died the next day in Kevorkian's presence.
During the raid, police seized a videotape showing a conference between Kevorkian and Peabody, taped in her kitchen the day she died. During the news conference, Fieger showed that tape, along with one Peabody sent to Kevorkian asking for his help.
In the tape she sent to Kevorkian, dated Aug. 26, Peabody pleaded for his help, saying she was turning into a "vicious, nasty woman."
"I appreciate your time and your efforts to help people in my situation," she said. "There is nothing I can do for myself, and I can't do this anymore.
"I've fought this as long as I could fight it and if it wasn't for you I don't know what I'd do."
On the consultation tape, Kevorkian asks questions from out of view, while Peabody sits in her wheelchair. He started by asking her about her condition, and having her make a fist, which Peabody does with some effort.
During the viewing, Joe Peabody, Loretta's husband, started crying.
"What is it that you want to do now?" Kevorkian asked Peabody.
"I want to leave," she responds.
"Isn't there anything in your life worth going on for despite your incapacitation?" Kevorkian asks.
Peabody's tearful response: "I can't do it anymore. I just can't."
At the end of the interview, Peabody signs some forms, and Kevorkian asks her family if they have any more questions.
"Everybody has a different tolerance level, Loretta, and you're the only one who can determine where it is," Kevorkian said.
"I just can't do it anymore," she replies.
"Fine," Kevorkian said.
Fieger said Joe Peabody and his daughter, Teresa Helms, had been subpoenaed, but would not cooperate with the grand jury and were not concerned with any possible legal fallout.
"Thompson and Voet can come through us," Fieger said.
Voet refused to comment this afternoon. Earlier, he said the grand jury's job will be to determine what happened inside the house and whether charges should be filed.
"It is uncertain what will be able to be sustained in a court of law," the prosecutor said. "Still, too, exists a question of what the public wants with regards to enforcement of the common-law crime assisting suicide."
Joe Peabody said he was upset that he had to release the tape or hold a news conference, and that the family had done all it could to keep her death private.
"Ask yourself if this was a suicide - if she had killed herself with a gun, none of us would be here," Peabody said.
In September, Fieger confirmed that Kevorkian had quietly betending the deaths of Michigan residents without publicizing it. He declined to give a specific number, but said it was "more than one, less than 100."