Last week Allen County commissioners agreed to pay Jared Froggatte, coroner investigator, for work done in regards to two deaths, despite being denied by the sheriffs office. This did not set well with Sheriff Bryan Murphy, who was out of town during the previous meeting.
While reviewing his budget on Monday, Murphy realized the requests had been paid, which he considers an undue expense.
Both doctors signed off on these death certificates. Based on state statutes, if there is no suspicion or question of what caused the death and the doctor agrees to sign the certificate, then there is no reason for an investigation, Murphy said.
Murphy said he denied the requests with the approval of the district coroner.
He explained the difference between attended and unattended deaths.
An attended death means the person has a local physician that is attending in the area. An unattended death doesnt mean they are alone, it just means they do not have a local physician, he said.
Murphy said if a person dies alone in their home, it would still be considered an attended death because they had a doctor in the area.
Once it is established a victim died of natural causes, the physician signs a death certificate.
If judged suspicious, an autopsy is requested.
Murphy said in regards to the two cases he denied, there was no reason for further investigation.
Commissioner Bruce Symes said it looks as standard procedures had been violated.
Last week I suggested we get a process in place to keep these awkward situations from taking place, and based on what I am hearing they already have one, Symes said.
Commissioner Jerry Daniels, who was not present but listened to the conversation over speaker phone, said he intended to get to the bottom of this, to which Murphy said, The bottom of it is I am in charge of that budget item, and I sign off on anything and everything that comes through the coroners office. And when that person is denied, he decides to come to the commission meeting and it was simply passed through. My decision and the coroners decision is mute and overridden.
IN OTHER news, public works director Mitch Garner reported that several parts are on the way for the new rock crusher, which broke down two weeks ago. Since the last meeting, things have been going much better with Murphy Equipment, who the county purchased the machine from.
