http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/1097557,4_1_JO08_COUNTY_S1.articleCounty board not rushing to decision
August 8, 2008
By STEWART WARREN
SWARREN@SCN1.COMJOLIET -- The county board hasn't made up its mind about a medical examiner.
Although they have discussed the issue at length during at three different public meetings -- one of them featuring famed New York forensic pathologist Michael Baden as a speaker -- the board usually moves very, very slowly.
The members of the county's executive committee were supposed to decide during their Thursday meeting if there should be a November referendum asking voters if they want to dump the coroner system in favor of a medical examiner. But that didn't happen. After a brief discussion on the issue Thursday, County Board Chairman Jim Moustis, R-Frankfort, said there should be one more meeting.
"Let's decide it as a board and put it to rest," Moustis said.
So he scheduled a 9 a.m. Aug. 18 public meeting of the full county board. It will be held at the county office building, 302 N. Chicago St., Joliet. Will County residents who are interested in the issue are invited, too.
The Republican members of the county board first talked during a March 20 caucus held at a Joliet restaurant about the possibility of having death probes done by a medical examiner instead of the elected coroner. Medical examiners are physicians and might be better trained and equipped to handle complicated cases, they said.
Will County Coroner Patrick K. O'Neil, a popular Democrat, is running for re-election in November against Republican Chuck Lyons, a former deputy coroner.
If the county switches to a medical examiner, that person would be chosen rather than elected.
During the Thursday meeting, board member Wayne McMillan, R-Bolingbrook, began the discussion. "I've lived in Bolingbrook for 38 years," he said. "Obviously the Kathleen Savio situation up there has disturbed and frustrated a lot of my constituents ... and they are angry."
On March 1, 2004, Savio, 40, was found dead in a dry bathtub at her Bolingbrook home. She was the third wife of Drew Peterson, now 54, a former Bolingbrook police officer.
Water was found in Savio's sinuses, there was a cut on the back of her head and her hair was drenched in blood. At the inquest, a Will County coroner's jury decided she died accidentally.
But that changed three years later. In October, Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, then 23, vanished. That prompted authorities to take another look at the mysterious bathtub death.
Savio's body was exhumed, there were new autopsies, and experts eventually decided that the coroner's jury was wrong. Savio actually was the victim of a homicide.
"Unfortunately, the perception in my area is the coroner is being seen as an unnecessary link -- and sometimes a barrier -- between the (forensic) pathologist and the police," McMillan said. "(Savio's death) is just a situation we never should have been involved in."
Moustis asked Will County Assistant State's Attorney Mary Tatroe, head of the civil division, to research the recent changes in Illinois law controlling the coroner system. She will present the information at the Aug. 18 meeting.
The full board will vote on the referendum issue during the Aug. 21 regular meeting.