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County board not rushing to decision

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« on: August 09, 2008, 03:16:13 am »

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/1097557,4_1_JO08_COUNTY_S1.article
County board not rushing to decision

August 8, 2008

By STEWART WARREN SWARREN@SCN1.COM

JOLIET -- 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.
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« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2008, 03:54:09 pm »

Of  course no rushing in, it costs more.
Lets do a proper job and we wouldnt be in this predicament.
Morons !!!
Accidental my fat ASS!!!!
How incompatent can a medical professional be? Should be LOL @!!!
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« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2008, 07:31:00 pm »

Switch from Will County coroner a dead issue

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/1114492,2_1_AU19_CORONER_S1.article

Will County: Board won't put measure on ballot to change to medical examiner process

August 19, 2008
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By STEWART WARREN SWARREN@SCN1.COM

JOLIET -- The push for a Will County medical examiner is dead. At least for now.

The proposed shift is related to the 2004 death of Kathleen Savio, the third wife of former Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson. Although a coroner's jury decided the drowning was accidental, the case was reopened last year after the October disappearance of Stacy Peterson, Peterson's fourth wife.

Now, Savio's death is labeled a homicide.

Some Bolingbrook residents believe the Savio case was bungled by Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil's office. If that hadn't happened, Stacy wouldn't have vanished, according to their reasoning.

During a special Monday meeting, Will County Board members discussed changing the system of local death investigations from an elected coroner to an appointed medical examiner.

Those who opposed the idea, including some employees who work for O'Neil, said a medical examiner would be an overly expensive, unnecessary change.

"Is this what the people of Will County deserve?" asked Mike VanOver, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1028 and a Will County deputy coroner. "A politically motivated rush job? The same old election-year politics?"

O'Neil, a Democrat, is running for re-election in November against Republican Chuck Lyons, a former deputy coroner.

County Board members such as Wayne McMillan, R-Bolingbrook, have mentioned public opinion as a reason for proposing the switch.

"I am asking you for this choice in the names of Kathleen Savio and Stacy Peterson," said Brenda Korneder, one of the many people who spoke Monday.

Some County Board members disagreed.

"What I haven't heard is one bit of evidence ... that a medical examiner would have investigated (the Savio case) differently," said Steve Wilhelmi, D-Joliet.

The board had to decide Monday if an item proposing a November referendum on the medical examiner issue should be on the agenda for Thursday's regular board meeting. In the end, members voted 14-12 against adding the issue to the agenda.

So the question will not be on the November ballot. By law, the members of the County Board had to vote for or against a referendum before adding the question to the ballot. Those votes had to be cast before Sept. 2.

"I think it's a disappointing vote," said board Chairman Jim Moustis, R-Frankfort.

"I think that those who voted 'no' did it for political reasons."
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« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2008, 07:32:17 pm »

Will County Board votes to keep coroner
Voters will not have say on choosing medical examiner

By Erika Slife | Chicago Tribune reporter
    August 19, 2008

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-will-coroner_19aug19,0,3454237.story



After two hours of sometimes emotional testimony Monday, the Will County Board narrowly rejected a proposal to put a question on November's ballot on whether the elected coroner should be replaced by an appointed medical examiner.

Although the GOP-controlled board has been examining the issue since last spring, some members said they voted down the proposal because they didn't know the cost of switching to a medical examiner's office. Others said they didn't believe the system needed changing.

"I don't really think we had all the information," said Tom Weigel (R-New Lenox), who joined six other Republicans and seven Democrats to defeat the proposal 14-12. "I think it sprung up in a real short span of time."

The issue marked the first political fallout from the Drew Peterson investigation. Under the watch of Democratic Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil, a coroner's jury in 2004 ruled the death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, an accident.

Now, the former Bolingbrook police sergeant, 54, is a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, and Savio's case has been reopened as a murder investigation. O'Neil's office has been under fire for its role in the initial investigation of Savio's death.

"Overall, I see it as a knee-jerk reaction to the Peterson-Savio situation," said Joseph Baltz (R-Shorewood). "I don't see that economically in the long run that we could accomplish it in our budget."

Critics of the proposal, including Will County State's Atty. James Glasgow, said it could cost millions of dollars to switch systems. An accredited medical examiner and staff would have to be hired, and toxicology labs would have to be built. In Illinois, only Cook County has a medical examiner system.

"How will this county board find the money to fund this proposed medical examiner system?" said Mike Van-Over, president of Local 1028 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "Is this what the tax-paying families of Will County deserve—a politically motivated rush job?"

But about a dozen supporters of Stacy Peterson attended the board meeting to show their support for the medical examiner system. Those who testified at the meeting said they believe the coroner system failed Savio and Stacy Peterson.

"I truly believe that if a medical examiner had been in place, Kathleen Savio's death would have been ruled a homicide four years ago," said Brenda Korneder of Bolingbrook. "That her family would not have had to endure the torment of an exhumation to confirm their fears and that they might have justice instead of pain and sorrow."

Stacy Peterson's sister, Cassandra Cales, said: "I believe in my heart that had Kathleen Savio's case been properly handled, my sister would most likely be alive today."

Board Chairman James Moustis (R-Frankfort) said he would like to establish a task force to study the issue.

eslife@tribune.com
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