County Coroner Candidates Debate Merits of Moving to Medical Examiner's System

Like their counterparts running for Recorder of Deeds, the four candidates for Lake County Coroner debated over whether the county should maintain a coroner's office or move to a medical examiners system in Sunday's candidate forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Lake County (LWV) at the University Center in Grayslake.

Dr. Thomas Rudd, a Lake Forest resident, is a Democratic candidate and has never held an elected office, but has run for the Lake County Sanitary District twice and lost. He is passionate over moving the county from a coroner's office to a medical examiner's system.

Artis Yancey, a Waukegan resident, has a 20-plus year career in law enforcement in Waukegan including a short stint as chief of police. The Democratic candidate was appointed coroner in April of last year when Dr. Richard Keller resigned after accepting a plea deal over his involvement in the death of a 30-year-old Lindenhurst resident.

Steve Newton, a resident of Antioch, worked in the Lake County Coroner's office for seven years, working his way up to deputy coroner until 2007 when he was "forced out" by Richard Keller. He is a Republican candidate.

Howard Cooper, who lives in Bannockburn, has been practicing dentistry in Gurnee for 30 years. The Republican candidate has been involved in forensics for more than 20 years. He has performed forensic work following the 911 terrorist attack on New York and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

The candidates answered questions drawn from the LWV, the Daily Herald and audience members. Here is a cross-section of those questions and their responses.

• Why are you running for office?

Thomas Rudd:

"I am running for office to return professionalism to the coroner's office. It has never been run by a pathologist. We will institute a review of policies and procedures, and we will demand that the office is certified by the National Association of Medical Examiners. I will also insist that individual death investigators be certified by the American Board of Medical Legal Death Investigators. I will be truly political neutral."

Artis Yancey:

"On April 12, 2011, when I took over, I walked into a situation that was characterized by some as a ship out of control. The staff was very battered and bruised by the information put out by the coroner’s office. As a team, we have revamped the evidence property collections, offered uniforms to our officers for more professionalism, we use a new computerized tracking system to assist in case management, and we have discontinued the ill-conceived policy of not allowing citizens to view the decedents while in the coroner’s care. We started a preventable tragedy series where we are making Lake County residents aware of spikes in deaths such as suicides, distracted driving and others."

Steve Newton:

"I was hired as a deputy coroner and spent seven years. I started at the ground level and worked my way up through the ranks. When I was forced out of office in 2007 by Richard Keller, I was the chief deputy coroner. Not only was I still conducting investigations, I was also supervising the investigations, the investigators, assisting with the budget preparation in the office and other administrative aspects. I feel the coroner’s office has gone downhill in the past few years. I believe it’s in the process of being righted, and I would like to be the person to complete that task."

Howard Cooper:

"Once elected, I will make death prevention a priority. This is very important to me. I want to get into the county’s high schools and talk to the kids about drinking and driving, texting and driving, suicide, drugs, alcohol and other risky behaviors. I want to bring compassion back into the office. We need to have compassion and respect for the people coming into our office grieving. I want all medical legal death investigators to have certification status and take continuing education yearly."

• Does the coroner need to be a medical doctor? Why or why not?

Artis Yancey:

"Traditionally, the coroner’s office has not been a medical professional. By statue, it is a law enforcement position. There are a lot more intricacies into the coroner’s office than just the autopsy. Investigation is a very vital role in the coroner’s office, as well as administration. The biggest aspect of the coroner’s office is the administration of the office. We have seen over the last couple of years that leadership in administration is very vital for the corner’s office to continue the path we have started over the past nine months."

Steve Newton:

"I would agree with Coroner Yancy as far as the statue lay out that it has to be a law enforcement office. A lot of people think it has to be a doctor, and that the coroner himself is doing the autopsies when in all essence that’s not true. The only person who can do an autopsy for the coroner’s office is a certified forensic pathologist. The forensic pathologists that do the autopsy are contracted in. Even if a forensic pathologist was sitting up here running for office and was elected, they could not do autopsies in this county per state statue because of a conflict of interest."

Howard Cooper:

"I feel that having a medical/dental background puts me at a big advantage. We’re obviously going to be talking to the pathologist about what happened. I know the body, know the terms, and know all about it. Have done autopsies myself. It’s a huge advantage to have a degree and talk to the pathologists doing the autopsies. Working with law enforcement, we don’t have to be a doctor, we can talk to them in layman’s terms because we have the background to do so."

Thomas Rudd:

"Why is it, that every major city in the U.S. does not have a coroner’s system. Why is it a medical examiner’s system. Because the coroner’s office is an antiquated system. It’s the days when dog catchers and barbers used to declare somebody dead. It should be abolished. The only reason we have a coroner’s system is because we don’t have enough pathologists to run it. Secondly, it is a political job with inherent conflict of interest. You have law enforcement now running it. We have a death investigation right now in North Chicago with alleged police abuse. You have law enforcement studying law enforcement. And what makes it worse, the mayor of North Chicago is endorsing the coroner. This is political. This is wrong."

• There has been so much discussion about how counties would be better served with medical examiners instead of elected official coroners, please comment.

 Steve Newton:

"The medical examiner system is designed for a larger metropolitan are than Lake County. We have a lot of different agencies that we can work together collaboratively with. For the amount of cases that Lake County takes in a year, the medical examiner’s system is just not cost effective. Why would be paying three pathologists full-time salaries when as we currently do, and have in the past, have pathologists that on call., come in when they are needed. We’re not paying three full-time salaries for them to sit around some days and potentially do nothing."

Howard Cooper:

"I still believe that we need to give the power to the people and being able to vote this position in. If the person in the coroner’s position is not doing a good job, they can be voted out. In the medical examiner’s system, it is very political. Political to the point where you can’t get the people out of office when they are not doing the job they are supposed to be doing. I think in this system, the people have the power to vote and that’s what they should do."

Thomas Rudd:

"If you are a medical examiner, you’ve heard what’s going on in Cook County. They say we can’t get rid of her. They say Toni Preckwinkle can’t get rid of her. The Cook County Board can get rid of her for any and all causes. The press has not brought that out. It was said it’s not cost efficient to run a coroner’s office. That is not true. When I get in office, going to petition the board to convert it to a medical examiner,  right now the coroner is making $125,000 and we’re paying forensic pathologists to come in and do the autopsy. This is a small office as it was said, you could have one employee doing administration and the autopsies. Obviously, you would have to change one of the laws allowing the office to do autopsies. But if you become a medical examiner and they pass a law making it a medical examiner, you can do both and you will save $300,000 to $400,000 and not have 3-4 people working there. One medical examiner can currently do the workload and the administration."

Artis Yancey:

"If we look at Cook County, we’ve seen a medical examiner’s office that has run into a lot of problems, such as blacklogs of decedents. We have worked incredibly hard to clear out the backlogs – we will be approaching a zero backlog very shortly. I think the electoral process is better for the voters so they can understand the process that goes on. I also think this type of venue makes for a good exchange of ideas that will make the office better in the future."

• Do coroner deputies currently act as law enforcement officers? Please comment.

Howard Cooper:

"I think anyone working for the office is considered a law enforcement officer. But there is a difference between them as police officers and coroner’s office. They are working with the police. But certainly our investigation is our investigation. Whatever our results are then we would give it to the police department wherever it is in the county."

Thomas Rudd:

"As I understand it, they are law enforcement, but limited to the decedent and limited area there. The police handle the entire area. Yes, they are law enforcement. They work with the decedent. That is their control.

Artis Yancey:

"Because of the type of work we do, there has to be protocols put in place to understand what our vision as coroner deputies entail. We have put those protocols in place and they are functioning as a deputy coroner should since my taking over the office."

Steve Newton:

"I couldn’t have said it better myself."