Should San Joaquin's sheriff-coroner's office problems force Stanislaus to change?

Despite what's happening in a neighboring county, Stanislaus County officials said they see no need to separate the sheriff-coroner office that has existed here for almost 50 years.

"It is operating smoothly right now," county Supervisor Vito Chiesa said. The problems in one county are not a legitimate reason to force a change for the 41 counties in California with consolidated sheriff-coroner offices, he said.

A bill co-authored by state Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, and Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, would require the larger counties — those with at least 500,000 population — to have an independent medical examiner for performing autopsies and investigating causes of death.

Stanislaus County's population is about 540,000. Senate Bill 1303 would let the smaller counties, like Merced, keep a dual office system that is only prevalent today in California and two other states.

The California Medical Association has sponsored the bill, stressing that independent medical examiners, with credentials as a physician and surgeon, should handle autopsies without interference from law enforcement.

In December, San Joaquin County chief medical examiner Bennet Omalu and a forensic pathologist resigned over what they said was meddling from Sheriff Steve Moore, who oversees the coroner's office.

Galgiani, who also has had conflicts with Moore, says the issues in San Joaquin County, in part, resulted in the legislation. Her website states that "Moore, according to Dr. Omalu, regularly interfered with death investigations and used his political office to protect law enforcement officers in cases of persons who died while in custody or during arrest."

In Stanislaus County, the sheriff has been responsible for the coroner's office since an ordinance in December 1969 consolidated the offices of sheriff and coroner, treasurer and tax collector, clerk and recorder and agricultural commissioner and sealer of weights and measures.

Changing the system doesn't seem to be a priority for top county officials or those aspiring to leadership positions.

"I am not aware of any issues facing our county," said sheriff's Lt. Jeff Dirkse, who's running for sheriff in the June primary. The coroner's office is not one of his responsibilities as a lieutenant.

"Generally, cooperation and collaboration is better than separating things out and creating another layer of bureaucracy," Dirkse said. The candidate said he wanted to thoroughly read the bill before formulating a position on SB 1303.

Another candidate, Sgt. Juan Alanis, said he would make the required changes as sheriff if the bill becomes law. Alanis noted that deputies who currently work in the coroner’s office could be used as community resource and school resource deputies or they could fill detective positions and other vacancies.

Regardless of whether the offices are split, Alanis said the pathologist should be allowed to come up with the cause of death without interference from the sheriff.

The Sheriff's Department oversees the operation of the coroner's facility in a county center off Oakdale Road in Modesto and provides deputies to assist with transporting bodies, family notifications and death investigations.

"If you have some conflict between the medical examiner and sheriff, it would make sense (to split the offices)," Board of Supervisors Chairman Jim DeMartini said. "I don't see we have a problem here. I could go either way."

The coroner's division has been busy, performing 345 autopsies in 2017, or 20 more than a standard limit for any single forensic pathologist in a year, according to the National Association of Medical Examiners.

A full-time forensic pathologist shares the autopsy duties with a part-time forensic pathologist. The office is performing autopsies for Tuolumne County and received budget approval Tuesday to hire another full-time pathologist. The contract with Tuolumne will cover about 40 percent of the $453,252 annual cost of the new position.

Sheriff-Coroner Adam Christianson is looking into a contract with other partners to offset the position's cost. He did not respond to requests for an interview on SB 1303.

Under the proposed legislation, an independent medical examiner-coroner would report to the county chief executive office and the department would need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring managers and other staff to replace sheriff's office employees who are reassigned.

Chiesa said that smaller counties are looking to contract with larger ones for autopsy services because pathologists are in short supply.

With more than 40 counties using the sheriff-coroner model, Chiesa expects to see resistance to SB 1303.

Through a spokesman, Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston said it was too early to issue a statement on the new bill. Livingston, who oversees coroner services, is a board member for the California State Sheriff's Association, which will analyze SB 1303 if it moves forward, he said.

The bill has been referred to the Senate committees on governance and finance and public safety.

Moore is poised to take over leadership of the state sheriff's association. Galgiani and her staff did not respond to numerous requests from The Modesto Bee to talk about the bill.

A couple of large counties merged their sheriff and coroner offices in the not-too-distant past, including San Bernardino in 2005 and Riverside in 1999. Santa Clara County divided the dual office in 2016 following allegations of law enforcement interference with coroner examinations.

This story was originally published March 6, 2018 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Should San Joaquin's sheriff-coroner's office problems force Stanislaus to change?."