So the sheriff is the coroner also in Kern County?

[damnedifIknow]

In Kern County, the Sheriff is elected to serve as the Sheriff-Coroner-Public Administrator with each role having distinct authorities and functions.

The Coroner is mandated by law to investigate and determine the cause and manner of death for people who pass away in Kern County pursuant to California Government Code Section 27491 and Health and Safety Code Section 102850, including all violent, sudden or unusual deaths.

http://www.kernsheriff.com/PSB/Coroner/Pages/default.aspx

[MADem]

1. We plug 'em, we plant 'em, and we push the paperwork?

That's a lotta balls in the air....

[pacalo]

2. How convenient. No medical experience required?

This is the same sheriff whose deputies took a K-9 dog to his ex-wife's home to serve a search warrant regarding his son's drug arrest. The deputies entered the home while Mrs. Youngblood was sleeping upstairs & the dog mauled her. Why they entered the home without first having presented the warrant to the homeowner is questionable on its own. If that attack had been fatal, how would his "coroner's" determination be worded, is the question.

I'd like to read his "coroner's" report on David Silva's murder by his deputies.

[defacto7]

3. That makes for one nice little Kingdom!

It's nice to be the monarch of your very own country!

[Sunlei]

4. many usa coroners are not medical people, many just sign a death cert.

It's a low paid county position in most states. Who knows how many thousands of our citizens especially our elders die from abuse, and no one even examined their body.

California should be able to afford a coroner who is not the sheriff. Someone should investigate all the deaths in that county.

[politicat]

5. And coroner should be a professional position, not an elected one.

Electing the coroner strikes me as the worst possible way to ensure competence in the legal-medical part of the job.

[Sunlei]

6. google "Coroner Fraud" and see how this scam industry milks taxpayers and consumers.

[mulsh]

7. This is a county not state office. Many CA counties require medical cerrtification for coroners some

do not.