Just over a week since the removal of former Cape Girardeau County Coroner Wavis Jordan for allegedly stealing money from a dead person’s wallet and falsifying death records, Cape Girardeau county has approved a new deputy coroner.
Jordan was removed from office on Feb. 8th after Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed criminal charges against him and issued a petition for his removal, which was granted by a judge later the same day. Since his removal, Cape Girardeau County Sheriff Ruth Ann Dickerson has taken over as interim coroner, which is standard practice under the guidelines of the Missouri Coroners and Medical Examiner’s Association.
“It's been in the statute for many years that in the absence of the coroner, that the sheriff would step up,” Dickerson said. “If the coroner is not available, due to any time that the coroner has to transport somebody somewhere or if they are out of town for training, it's not unusual for the sheriff to step up and cover the coroner duties.”
On February 15, Sheriff Dickerson recommended that David Taylor be appointed as deputy coroner to the County Board of Commissioners, who approved the request. Dickerson said that Taylor has previous experience in the county coroner’s office and will oversee the administrative duties of the office.
“There's a lot of administrative work. There's paperwork that has to be reviewed, paperwork that has to be filled out and signed. So bringing someone with some experience working with the Department of Health and Senior Services paperwork was probably a good move, because he will be able to help me quickly put that paperwork in order,” Dickerson said.
Though the addition of a deputy coroner is intended to help alleviate the workload being managed by the coroner’s office, Sheriff Dickerson will remain the interim coroner in addition to her role as Sheriff for the time being due to current open cases being managed by the department.
Dickerson will not perform any autopsies as coroner, and said that Cape Girardeau county has contracted with a pathologist to perform autopsies “even when [Jordan] was coroner”. It is, however, the job of the coroner to record the cause of death and other observations documented by the pathologist on death certificates,as well as other duties. Dickerson said she and other members of her staff will work together to carry out all necessary tasks.
“I can as the sheriff assign out duties. So no, [it’s] not always just me doing it. All of my staff will be assisting in whatever duties need to be done,” Dickerson said. “We will get everything covered.”
KBIA contacted Wavis Jordan, who declined to comment on this story.
