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Article: UNIFORM STATE SYSTEM NEEDED, CRITICS SAY COUNTY CORONERS DON'T HAVE EXPERTISE THAT MEDICAL EXAMINERS DO, THEY CLAIM.(News)
- Article from:
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Article date:
- October 31, 2002
- Author:
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Byline: RUTH TEICHROEB P-I reporter
For a filing fee of about $300, anyone from a plumber to a police officer can run for coroner in almost half of Washington's 39 counties.
By law, an elected prosecutor does coroner duty on the side in most of the rest. Only the six largest counties put medical examiners who are forensic pathologists in charge.
That piecemeal approach is one of the biggest barriers to improving child death investigations, say experts who advocate a statewide medical examiner system.
"In general, the coroner counties don't investigate," said Dr. Cliff Nelson, a deputy state medical examiner in Portland, who formerly ...