Professor' Who Assisted Pathologist on Michael Brown Private Autopsy May Not Be All He's Claimed to Be, CNN Reports

Shawn Parcells, who assisted pathologist Dr. Michael Baden with the autopsy of Michael Brown that was arranged by the 18-year-old shooting victim's family, may not be all he's claimed to be, a CNN investigation found.

Shawn Parcells speaks about the results of a second autopsy done on Michael Brown Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, in St. Louis County, Mo. (Image source: AP/Jeff Roberson)

Parcells has referred to himself as a "professor" and has been called a forensic pathologist, but Parcells doesn't claim to have any specific license or certification to do the work he does, CNN reported. In fact, he knows how to do autopsies from "on-the-job training," CNN added, as well as from watching pathologists and assisting them at various morgues.

"To take out organs and to cut open a body, you don't need to be a pathologist," he told CNN. "Come to an autopsy. I think when you see what I do, you'll realize that I'm not just making this stuff up out of blue, thin air."

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He certainly sounded knowledgeable and authoritative on August 18 when he presented the findings of the Michael Brown autopsy to a nationally televised news conference.

Baden, who conducted the autopsy, spoke first, and then introduced Parcells, saying he "has been instrumental in the autopsy evaluation."

"First of all, I'm Professor Shawn Parcells," Parcells said as he stood to address the reporters.

On his LinkedIn page and to CNN, Parcells said he's an adjunct professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas -- but a spokeswoman for the university told CNN that's not true.

"(Parcells) is not now and has never been a member of the Washburn University faculty," university spokeswoman Michaela Saunders wrote in an email to CNN, adding that at one point, Parcells spoke without receiving pay to two groups of nursing students about the role of a pathologist's assistant and gave a PowerPoint presentation and answered students' questions.

"If they want to think I'm a doctor, that's their issue," Parcells told the cable network.

Read the full investigative report from CNN here.

(H/T: The Gateway Pundit)