INDIANAPOLIS -- Photographs taken in the Marion County coroner's office this week show that case evidence and dead people's property are being kept in the open, vulnerable to contamination or theft, a former chief deputy coroner said Wednesday.

According to former Chief Deputy Coroner John Linehan, the photos show bags of property of the dead -- including cash and jewelry -- unsecured in the office, he said.

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Video: Watch Report

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"Anyone could have access to it (and) contaminate it, simply even by picking it up and touching it," Linehan told 6News' Jack Rinehart. "You can take things out of it without anyone ever knowing it."

Details about who took the photos weren't available, but when 6News asked Coroner Kenneth Ackles about them, he seemed to indicate they came from someone in his office.

"I have a disgruntled employee working for me," Ackles said.

The photos come two months after grand jury investigators began probing the coroner's office, checking allegations that $10,000 in cash was stolen from three bodies. They also are investigating accusations that at least two bodies were cremated without the office notifying next of kin.

Linehan, who has been critical of the office, was fired by Ackles in December 2005. Linehan is suing Ackles in federal court.

Ackles recently created controversy in a separate firing. He dismissed the county's forensic pathologist without securing the services of a replacement, Rinehart reported.

Ackles, a Democrat, said he was unfairly taking criticism for an office that was long controlled by Republicans.

"I've only been the coroner for one year and 11 months. Republicans have had this office for 50 years," Ackles said. "I come in, and (critics say) everything that I'm doing is wrong."