Coroners to Train at New Facility

Orange County’s school for coroners--believed to be the only statewide training center for death-scene investigators in the country--is about to be rebuilt with an infusion of public money.

The county Board of Supervisors this week granted a $12-million construction contract to Swinerton Builders of Newport Beach to replace the existing 12,000-square-foot single-story structure on West Santa Ana Boulevard in Santa Ana.

The new facility, a two-story building with about four times the space, will include diagnostic and investigative equipment and increased freezer capacity.

It will also put all of the center’s programs under one roof for the first time.

Orange County has hosted the state program since the late 1980s, when then-Sheriff Brad Gates led a drive to establish standardized training for coroners.

To be certified, coroners must pass 144 hours of instruction on techniques for investigating death scenes.

But space constraints have forced local officials to use hotel meeting rooms for classes and then move students to the morgue for more direct study, said Jaque Berndt, chief deputy coroner for the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Department.

The classes include medical terminology; how to differentiate among homicide, suicide and death by accident or natural causes; and dealing with the media.

The $359 classes are offered twice a year, and about 100 people take them each year, Berndt said.

Evidence gathered at death scenes is critical for pathologists, who perform the autopsies to determine causes of death.

Unlike pathologists, who are medical doctors with additional training in forensics, coroners need have only a bachelor’s degree or equivalent training, Berndt said.