PHOTO: Brandon Bishop and family, from Facebook.
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners appeared to be somewhat surprised, yesterday morning, April 11, to hear that our elected County Coroner, Brandon Bishop, had submitted his resignation the previous afternoon…
…effective Sunday, April 16.
Reportedly, Mr. Bishop is starting a job on April 17 with the Pagosa Springs Police Department, serving as a school resource officer.
Rather short notice?
County Manager Derek Woodman suggested that the BOCC might want to react “rather quickly”.
The County Coroner is an important office for a couple of reasons. He or she is responsible for determining the cause of death, which is a mildly crucial determination in cases when a person dies of natural causes, but becomes more critical when the death involves violence.
Determining whether a violent death is an accident, a suicide, or a homicide, plays a significant role in our system of justice, and in the overall safety of the community.
From the County website:
The investigation of a death by the Coroner’s Office is an extremely important function as it is done by an independent agency who does not work for the law enforcement agency, the physician, the nursing home, the hospital, the prosecution or the defense, but works on behalf of the deceased to obtain the truth about their death.
The other important role, which we hope never needs to be exercised: the County Coroner is the only official authorized to arrest the County Sheriff.
Here’s County Commissioner Veronica Medina:
“He did tell me that he would recommend his deputy coroner, Shannon, who is willing to do it in the interim, until we appoint somebody. But she’s not interested in doing it full-time, because she has another job…”
County Manager Woodman:
“That has changed… she is interested in doing it in the interim, but she might also be willing to do it full-time. Nonetheless, I think the appropriate procedure, for moving forward with this, obviously this will be an appointment by the BOCC for that position, that would be an appointment until the next general election in 2024, and that is the law. And so with that said, we need to get this out aggressively to the public, announcing that there is this vacant opportunity and solicit resumes, and do interviews, and make a determination for the appointment.”
Commissioner Warren Brown:
“I think it’s also important, working in this realm, it’s a total disservice if we do not give preference to an applicant that has recent experience — say, within the last ten years — of death or crime scene investigation, and a preference for someone who has experience in a human science field like biology, nursing, forensic emergency medical technician, anatomy, or psychology from an accredited organization. This is not something, that we want Joe Schmoe who says, ‘Hey, I think that would be fun’. Because these are serious in nature and we owe a certain level of professionalism not only to the decedent but to that decedent’s family, to do a competent, thorough investigation and make the right determination.”
Although these are certainly sensible comments by Commissioner Brown, they do not align with the official candidate qualifications for the office of County Coroner in Colorado:
From Colorado Revised Statutes § 30-10-601.5:
A person is eligible to hold the office of coroner if the person:
1. Is a citizen of the United States and a resident of the state of Colorado and of the county in which the person will hold the office of coroner;
2. Has earned a high school diploma or its equivalent, or a college degree; and
3. Has given a set of fingerprints in accordance with subsection (2) of this section.
Additionally, a person with a felony conviction or who has entered a plea of nolo contendere to any felony charge under federal or state law is unqualified for the office of coroner… unless pardoned.
Those are the qualifications, if you are asking the voters to elect you.
Asking the BOCC for an appointment may be a different matter.
Anyone with interest in applying for the Coroner job is asked to submit a letter of interest to derek.woodman@archuletacounty.org.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.