Months after controversy erupted over the handling of coroner’s cases, San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore has come up with a proposal that he feels will satisfy those calling for more autonomy and oversight in the embattled division that is currently without a permanent medical professional to handle death investigation cases as they come in.
And while it’s not the separation of his elected duties as many have called for – including the two forensic pathologists that have left the county after raising issues with his leadership and what they claim was his meddling in cases to change their medical opinion – it is something that counties in California have done to create separation between the law enforcement side and the medical side of the job.
“This is modeled on a policy used in Contra Costa County that has proved successful, transparent, cost-effective, and can be completed in months, not years,” San Joaquin County Sherriff Steve Moore said in a written statement. “The Coroner’s Inquest have proved to be highly successful in Contra Costa County for decades.
“We anticipate the same results here in San Joaquin County and we will share more as we implement the change.”
Dubbed the “coroner’s inquest” model, the new system would allow for the coroner – in this case, Moore – to call for an inquest that would allow a jury or a hearing officer to make the decision as to the manner of death while the pathologist conducting the autopsy would determine the cause of death.
The announcement, which came Friday in a post released to the Sherriff’s Department Facebook page, comes just before a report is expected to be presented to the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors about the options available when it comes to the county’s coroner division in the wake of the highly-publicized resignations late last year.
Dr. Susan Parson was the first to announce that she was leaving the county, citing conflicts with Moore as the chief factor – releasing memos that detailed a pattern of what she believes was harassment by Sherriff’s Department officials. In a show of solidarity and to give credence to Parson’s claims, Dr. Benet Omalu – the world-renowned forensic pathologist who first discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in the brains of retired football players – resigned a week later and released his own damning recollections about interference into medical decisions by Moore.
Both doctors have taken jobs elsewhere, and the county has been using a contractor to perform autopsy services while a permanent solution is sought.
At the heart of the issue is the county’s designation where the person who is elected as Sherriff also becomes the Coroner, and as part of their duties is mandated to determine the manner of death in all investigations.
By removing himself from the equation in situations that could be considered controversial or delicate – like a death and the hands of law-enforcement, which Parson cited as one of the chief reasons she chose to leave – the new configuration will create a level of transparency that is not currently enjoyed.
While Contra Costa County is the only other county in the area that uses the system, an article in the Yale Law and Policy Review penned by a law professor from the London School of Economics and Political Science calls for the method to be employed as a form of independent public review in the event of death by a law enforcement official to create an additional layer of transparency that removes any doubt of corruption.
But not everybody saw the move by the Sheriff’s Department to be completely on the up-and-up.
A number of comments on the statement that was released Friday afternoon considered the proposal too little, too late, and called for Moore’s opponent in the June primary – Pat Withrow – to make the necessary decisions to restore integrity and trust that controversies like the one with how coroner cases are handled have eroded.
The study on the Coroner’s Office commissioned by the Board of Supervisors is still expected to be delivered at their meeting next month, and how those recommendations will fit into the current proposal is not immediately known.