New Bill on Jail Deaths Introduced

Abandoning his effort to force the separation of sheriffs’ and coroners’ offices, Orange County Assemblyman Gil Ferguson introduced a compromise measure Monday that allows counties to give district attorneys full authority to investigate all deaths involving law-enforcement personnel.

The bill would allow, but not compel, counties to adopt the arrangement. It is designed to eliminate the perceived conflict when someone dies in jail, on the way to jail or in any incident involving a law-enforcement officer.

Thirty-five of the state’s 58 counties have combined offices of sheriff and coroner. But none has had a lingering controversy like the one in Orange County.

Posts Combined in ’71

Since the two posts were combined in 1971, critics in Orange County have complained frequently that impartial investigations of jail deaths are impossible.

Last June, after a study of the potential for a conflict of interest when one person is both sheriff and coroner, the Orange County Board of Supervisors adopted a policy of turning over all coroner duties regarding in-custody deaths to the district attorney’s office.

Six times so far, the district attorney’s office has taken over coroner duties. None of those investigations have suggested misdeeds by law-enforcement officers.

But Orange County officials say the legislation is needed in case a district attorney or sheriff elected in the future does not agree to the arrangement that Sheriff-Coroner Brad L. Gates and Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks have accepted.

Addresses Concern

Ferguson, a Newport Beach Republican, said the new legislation suggested by the Board of Supervisors addresses his concern “in essence . . . at least in my county.”

State coroners’ and peace officer groups, which say the measure is unnecessary, are gearing for an attempt to kill it.

Heavy lobbying by those groups last year helped defeat a bill by Ferguson that would have split the combined offices in the nine largest counties where one person holds both titles.

Ferguson said he expects similar opposition to his new measure.