After decades of watching shows like “Quincy, M.E.” and “CSI,” most people feel they have a good idea what a coroner does. But criminal investigations are a small part of the job.
On the November ballot, La Plata County residents will choose a coroner from two candidates who both have decades in the field but different levels of training and experience. The coroner responds to deaths for many reasons, including those that are unattended, or which result from trauma, possible suicide, poisoning, industrial accidents, contagious disease, during medical procedures and while in the custody of law enforcement. In a law harkening back to the late 1800s, the coroner is the only state official who can arrest a sheriff.
In La Plata County, the coroner’s office responds to about 120 cases annually, and about 45 percent require autopsies. Those are performed by a forensic pathologist from Grand Junction.
Janis “Jann” Smith has been serving as coroner for two years, since Dr. Carol Huser retired in 2012. She had been a deputy coroner for about 26 years before that and spent six years as the first coroner of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe.
“I’ve lived here a long time and know a lot of people,” she said. “I have working relationships with Axis Health, Mercy, Hospice of Mercy, San Juan Basin Health Department and of course, law enforcement.”
Beverly Begay has been involved in some aspect of law enforcement for 34 years, including serving as a deputy medical investigator in Albuquerque and chief forensic investigator in Houston.
“I’m big on injury prevention through education,” she said. “In New Mexico, I gave a lot of educational programs to organizations and schools about things like the effect of alcohol on the body and why people should wear seat belts. We worked with the state transportation department on a particular stretch of road where there was a high rate of pedestrian fatalities, figuring out what time of day they happened and got streetlights put in along that stretch.”
After hearing both candidates, the Fraternal Order of Police No. 8 Durango Lodge gave Begay its endorsement.
abutler@durangoherald.com
Janis ‘Jann’ Smith
Political affiliation: Republican
Key Issues: Upgrading policies; explore creation of regional morgue
Family: Widowed twice, four children, nine grandchildren, six great-grandchildren
Occupation: Coroner for La Plata County
Residence: Ignacio
favorite U.S. President: Abraham Lincoln
Beverly Begay
Party Affiliation: Unaffiliated
Key issues: Increase information available to public; provide in-service education to law enforcement; child and elderly fatality reviews
Family: Husband, Darrell Robertson, four children
Occupation: Administrative assistant, 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office
Residence: Durango
Favorite U.S. president: Franklin D. Roosevelt
