Wieder Says Study of Coroner’s Office Skirts Ethics Issue

Orange County supervisors are struggling with a hypothetical question that goes to the heart of the debate about whether the coroner’s office should be taken away from Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates and run by a medical examiner as a separate, independent agency.

The central question: If your loved one died while in the custody of sheriff’s deputies, would you trust the autopsy findings of a pathologist who, at least organizationally, answers to the sheriff?

“The issue of whether we must avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest may take precedence over the issue of cost effectiveness,” Supervisor Harriett Wieder said in an interview this week. “That’s why I’m not entirely happy with the report we have received on the subject, which seems to dwell on the expense aspect and hardly even touches on the ethical consideration.”

Wieder was referring to a five-month study of the controversy, which began when the sheriff seized mental health records involving an inmate whose death in jail was later ruled a suicide. County mental health officials had refused to release the documents to Gates, citing the doctor-patient privilege of confidentiality. The sheriff’s critics argue that only because of his role as sheriff was he able to seize the records and claim that a civilian coroner would not have done so.

The county study, released last week, recommends keeping the two offices consolidated, primarily because of estimates that it would cost nearly $700,000 to establish and run an independent coroner’s department.

The report, authored by the County Administrative Office, also recommends that coroner’s personnel report directly to Gates instead of administrative officers below Gates, as is now the case.

Also, the document recommends putting out to bid the 11-year-old pathology contract now held by an Anaheim-based partnership involving the three doctors who perform virtually all of the county’s autopsies.

Wieder is leaning toward having separate offices despite Gates’ strong opposition, and she thinks there may be a three-vote board majority ready to vote that way.

“This is one of those occasions when we may go against the CAO,” she said.

Board Chairman Thomas F. Riley and Supervisors Roger Stanton and Bruce Nestande are sympathetic to Wieder’s position, according to sources close to the board. But they remained undecided late last week. Supervisor Ralph Clark was supporting Gates.

Meanwhile, state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, asked his own experiences with independent medical examiners when he was Los Angeles County district attorney, said he was convinced that having separate offices is a “good idea.”

Even when the D.A. investigates all jail deaths and officer-involved shootings as the recent Orange County study urges, the deputy district attorney assigned to the case ends up having to rely on what the pathologist tells him, Van de Kamp said.

The attorney general declined to comment specifically about Orange County’s situation, however. “Orange County is a peculiar case,” he said. “With contracting out for pathology work, theoretically the pathologists can act independently of the sheriff unless he gets personally involved in a particular autopsy.”

Committee Vote Kills Sheriff-Coroner Bill

The issue of separating the sheriff’s and coroner’s offices was also on the minds of state legislators in Sacramento last week, as the Assembly Local Government Committee voted 6 to 2 against a bill that would have forced a division of the two functions in all but small counties.

The committee never got to a serious discussion of the substance of the bill. Committee members said they were angered by the way freshman Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) presented the bill to them and said that Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove), also a panel member, played a behind-the-scenes role in killing the legislation.

Some legislators said they were insulted when Ferguson took a “holier than thou” attitude and declared that he was there to “see what the legislators are made of.”

Also, some of the lawmakers said they found it convenient to oppose the bill on the grounds that it would violate the concept of local control.

Once the issue was perceived as a local concern, committee members simply followed legislative protocol and followed Robinson’s wishes, since he’s from Orange County. Opponents of the bill, including lobbyists for the California Peace Officers Assn., were worried before the vote because they had not had a chance to talk to Robinson. But as soon as the Garden Grove Democrat started asking hostile questions of Ferguson, the lobbyists knew they had won and walked out before the final tally.

After the vote, Ferguson was seen arguing with Gates in the hall. But by Friday, Ferguson had decided he would abandon his attempt to resurrect the legislation, scheduled for May 7. He said he doesn’t want to tangle with Gates on the issue anymore.

Lawman 1; Lawmaker 0.

Friends of Judge Say He’ll Oppose Brad Gates

With the June, 1986, election primaries still more than a year away, this is the season for floating trial political balloons.

Friends of Harbor Municipal Judge Russ Bostrom said he told them that he “definitely” intends to challenge Sheriff Brad Gates next year.

Bostrom said in an interview this past week that he was being “misquoted” by otherwise “well-intentioned people.”

But he also added:

“If the support were there, I’d consider it. I’m certainly not running for sheriff at this point . . . . Some people in law enforcement, along with others, have urged me to think about it.”

Asked on what issues he thinks Gates is politically vulnerable, Bostrom said:

“I don’t think I should comment . . . . To do so would impact my ability to perform the function that I’m currently supposed to perform.”

Although Gates has been a focal point of negative publicity recently concerning jail overcrowding, activists and campaign consultants say he still has the county’s broadest political bases.

Political Donors Hold Off on U.S. Senate Hopefuls

Although the U.S. Senate bids by Reps. William Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) and Dan Lungren (R-Long Beach) don’t have widespread credibility yet in a crowded field of GOP hopefuls, they’re keeping some Orange County political donors from committing to any of the other candidates--including Robert W. Naylor.

“They say they want to help but can’t until they know for sure what Dannemeyer and Lungren are going to do,” said Assemblyman Naylor (R-Menlo Park), who was in the county Friday for a chamber of commerce breakfast and who is among the would-be Republican nominees.

Naylor said he has also found that the possibility that state Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) will enter the fray is also causing some Orange County donors to sit the battle out for awhile. Campbell’s district was once entirely in Los Angeles County, but reapportionment gave him a large, easterly slice of Orange County as far south as Mission Viejo.

Naylor is the former Assembly Republican leader.

Sen. Hart Slips Into County for Meetings

U.S. Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) stole into the county last weekend for a secret, three-day retreat hosted by wealthy South Laguna developer and National Democratic Committeeman David Stein, with the help of architect Ed Lohrbach and video producer Stu Karl.

Hart, who carried Orange County overwhelmingly in the 1984 Democratic presidential primary, started out at Stein’s house and the Monarch Bay Beach Club, moved to brainstorming sessions about his political future and overnight stays at Lohrbach’s ranch near Trabuco Canyon, and then went boating on Karl’s yacht off Dana Point, according to Stein aide Chris Townsend.

About 30 national political campaign strategists and policy advisers attended the brainstorming sessions. Some guests stayed at the ranch, others had rooms at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Townsend said the cost of the retreat will not be reported as acampaign contribution to Hart because “the expenditures are not related to any political campaign . . . . We checked that out with the folks at the FEC (Federal Elections Commission).”