 In July 1985, Gross took a leave of absence following eleven charges of incompetence filed by the State Health Department.Although he was cleared of the charges filed by the State department, an administrative law judge ruled against their decision stating they lacked jurisdiction on the grounds that performing autopsies is not a practice of medicine.There was an internal investigation of the Chief Medical Examiner's office beginning in 1986 due to an increased number of allegations of misconduct, misleading causes of deaths and covering up evidence of police brutality.