by Bob Walsh
The San Joaquin County (CA) Board of Supervisors recently voted to spin the Coroner's Office off from the Sheriff's Office. In most counties in CA they are one administrative unit. This means for practical purposes that, under the old system, the Medical Examiner determines the CAUSE of death but the Coroner-Sheriff determines the MANNER of death. That has now changed.
Two years ago Abelino Cordova-Cuevas died during a fight with the Stockton P. D. The Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Bennet Omalu (am extremely competent and qualified individual) was convinced that the death should be classified as a homicide, which in CA is defined as death at the hands of another human being. The man's family asserts that, when the Sheriff finally got around to turning paperwork over to the family a lot of important information was missing from the file. The official manner of death was initially determined (by the Sheriff) to be other than a homicide. A lawsuit and subpoena for documents determined that, at some point the Sheriff-Coroner changed the manner of death to homicide. It had previously been listed as accidental.
According to the cops they made a legit traffic stop on Cordova-Cuevas. He first ran, then fought, then got Tasered, then died. He was also apparently loaded on meth. The family is, of course, suing.
No comments:
Post a Comment