The HIV skeptic sure picked a winner to back her up. “In recent weeks, Maggiore has been touting a report by toxicologist Mohammed Ali Al-Bayati, who practices in Dixon, Calif., that concludes that Eliza Jane died of an ‘acute allergic reaction’ to amoxicillin. Less than two days before she died, she was given the drug to treat what Maggiore said was an ear infection. Al-Bayati’s 44-page report, dated Oct. 25, said the allergic reaction caused low blood pressure, shock and cardiac arrest.

Al-Bayati reviewed Eliza Jane’s medical records but did not perform an autopsy or look at the coroner’s pathology slides. He told The Times his customary charge for such a review is $22,000, but he probably would give Maggiore a discount and hadn’t yet sent her a bill. (Maggiore said she had expected the review would be free.)

Though Maggiore calls Al-Bayati’s analysis ‘independent,’ he is a member of the advisory board of her nonprofit group, Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, and shares her views on HIV.

In 1999 Al-Bayati published a book, ‘Get All The Facts: HIV Does Not Cause AIDS,’ and he has always identified a cause other than HIV for patients whose illness has been diagnosed as AIDS, Maggiore said on her website.

Al-Bayati refers to himself as a pathologist and toxicologist. He has a doctorate in comparative pathology from UC Davis but he is not a medical doctor and is not certified by the American Board of Pathology. He is certified by the American Board of Toxicology and the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology. The latter two do not require a medical degree.

His company, Toxi-Health International, specializes in reevaluating the cause of death in cases in which parents or others have been convicted of killing children, often by shaking them to death.

Of the 10 cases in which he has been hired to reassess the cause of death after a criminal conviction, Al-Bayati said he has found the cause of death to be natural in all 10. In one recent case in Maryland, in which a baby-sitter was convicted of shaking an infant girl to death, he instead concluded that the child died from an inflammation of the pancreas and internal bleeding brought on by a vitamin K deficiency. The conviction was upheld, he said.”