Former area doctor charged in wife’s death

Dr. Jeffrey Harris, who practiced medicine in both Pullman and Lewiston, pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter in New York Supreme Court last week. Harris is charged with allegedly poisoning his sick wife, Tammy Harris, three years ago.

Tammy, who was from Moscow, died in February 2018 at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, N.Y., after the couple traveled to the state in search of a treatment for her ailments. She collapsed at the Lott New York Palace Hotel where they were staying and died nearly a week later at age 55.

Her death was declared a homicide in 2019 when an autopsy revealed she died from an overdose of a dietary supplement taken at her husband’s insistence, according to reporting from the New York Daily News.

An autopsy performed by the city’s medical examiner found she had eight times the average amount of selenium in her body. Selenium is a trace element often used as a dietary supplement.

While selenium is naturally present in many foods and considered safe in small amounts, larger doses can result in major health problems, including hair and nail loss, according to the National Institutes of Health. Too much of the mineral can also cause kidney failure and, in rare cases, death.

At the time of her death, Tammy weighed 70 pounds and had lost her hair and fingernails. A funeral service was held at First United Methodist Church in Moscow.

Prosecutors in the Manhattan courtroom Nov. 19 called it a “tremendously painful” death and “not something you typically see in wealthier nations,” reporting from the New York Daily News stated.

Harris was employed at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston when his wife died. They were married eleven years. He initially appeared in court on unspecified charges.

At his arraignment, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jim Farber held Harris on a $300,000 bond, according to case details on the New York State Unified Court System website.

Tammy Harris’s obituary, published April 2018 in The Lewiston Tribune, says she graduated from Washington State University with a bachelor of science degree in nursing and a master’s degree as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. She married Jeffrey Harris in 2007.

His next court appearance is Feb. 14 at 9 a.m.

 Palermo can be reached at apalermo@dnews.com or on Twitter @apalermotweets.