Investigation continues into mysterious death

Deepa Bharath

NEWPORT CENTER -- Police are still perplexed about what caused the

death of a 41-year-old Huntington Beach man whose body was found at the

base of a Newport Center parking garage Monday morning.

Jeffrey Paris Wall worked as an attorney with the firm O’Melveny &

Myers, located next to 24 Hour Fitness in the 600 block of Newport Center

Drive.

The coroner is performing toxicology tests on Wall, which could take

weeks, but a report they will release today or Friday should help

investigators “tie some loose ends,” said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Steve

Shulman.

“We’re looking at his work relationship, his personal background and

family background as part of the investigation,” he said.

Shulman said it is still not clear whether the incident was a

homicide, an accident or a suicide.

“We don’t know if there had been threats in the past,” he said. “Those

are some of the things we are looking into.”

Shulman said Wall is married and a father.

Employees of O’Melveny & Myers are “deeply saddened” by the incident,

managing partner Gary Singer said.

“Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to his family,” he said. Singer

declined to comment further.

As an attorney, Wall specialized in the areas of patent and

intellectual property and represented biomedical and biotechnical

companies and inventors, according to his profile posted on the company’s

Web site.

Wall earned a medical degree from the University of Iowa, from which

he graduated with honors. He also had degreesin microbiology and

chemistry.

While obtaining his medical degree, Wall performed research in the

fields of gastroenterology and immunology.

He had also worked in the Cancer Research Center at UC San Diego,

where he genetically engineered bacteria and conducted cell immunology

research. Wall also published several articles about intellectual

property and medicine.