Assault on Corpse Leads to Shake-Up

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to hire a new company to transport corpses to the coroner’s office in the wake of charges that employees from a previous contractor sexually assaulted the body of a 4-year-old girl.

Employees at the replacement company, Southwest Mortuary Services Inc. of Mission Viejo, will undergo criminal background checks and polygraph and psychological testing before they can transport corpses, according to the terms of the two-year contract.

The county also plans to improve surveillance in the morgue and increase the use of tamper-resistant body bags, among other measures, to ensure that bodies are not mistreated, Assistant Coroner Edward Harter told the supervisors.

In addition, the county has hired an employee to monitor all contract workers who have contact with corpses, he said.

In February, the county canceled its contract with All County Transport of Riverside after two of its workers, Donald Cooper, 32, and Chaunee Helm, 30, of Hesperia, were accused of assaulting the body of the 4-year-old, who died at a Victorville hospital after a seizure.

The case sparked anger and frustration among family members, police and some lawmakers who learned that California law does not prohibit sexual contact with a corpse. For that reason, prosecutors instead charged Cooper and Helm with a felony health and safety code violation, that of mutilating a corpse.

In response to the frustration of family members and others, Assemblywoman Sharon Runner (R-Lancaster) submitted a bill in February to make sexual assault on a corpse a felony. The Assembly passed the bill, but it died in the Senate Public Safety Committee after it failed to get the necessary four votes.

At the committee meeting, the bill (AB 1493) received only two votes of support and a “no” vote from Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles).

The bill would have imposed a penalty of up to three years in prison for performing a sexual act on a corpse.

Runner has vowed to reintroduce her bill next year.

In the Assembly, the only opposition came from Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles), who recently said she opposed the legislation because she believes violators should be sentenced to a state mental hospital instead of prison. “This is so clearly beyond the pale that they don’t belong in the criminal justice system,” she said.

Cooper and Helm were arrested in February after transporting the girl’s body to the San Bernardino morgue. Signs of trauma to the girl’s body were discovered by an employee from the Inland Eye and Tissue Bank who was preparing to harvest the child’s cornea, authorities said. Prosecutors have alleged that Cooper assaulted the girl’s body while Helm egged him on.

Investigators determined that the injury had occurred within the county morgue and ruled out family or coroner’s employees as suspects.

Cooper and Helm were arrested at a motel in Victorville. Both remain in custody. If convicted, they each could be sentenced to up to three years in prison.

A defense attorney had argued that a cut on the girl’s body does not constitute a mutilation. But in May, a Superior Court judge ruled that prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence to try Cooper and Helm. Their trial is scheduled to begin July 21.