(Watch) Carlette Brocious, Randy Keller field questions as primary nears

The Cañon City Daily Record recently visited separately with Carlette Brocious and Randy Keller, candidates for Fremont County Coroner, and talked about their qualifications and what they would like to see improved in the coroner’s office. To read the entire interview, visit canoncitydailyrecord.com.

DR: Colorado requires potential coroners to have a minimum of a high school diploma or GED, and once elected, they must complete training in medicolegal death investigation and gain professional certification in the field. They also must participate in professional development training each year. Do you feel medical training and/or knowledge should be a requirement for a potential coroner? Why or why not?

CB: “I do. In order to determine death, you need to be able to figure out which body systems interact with other body system and how, in order to determine how that person ended up on the floor or wherever. Everybody dies of ‘cardiopulmonary arrest,’ but you can’t use that on a death certificate. You used to be able to use it, you have to know why they died. If you don’t have any medical knowledge, you can’t intertwine their hypertensive history versus cancer history or something like that.”

RK: “In some counties, medical is pertinent. In 20 percent of the state, it is required because those are the folks that perform autopsies for counties such as ours. Eighty percent of the state’s coroners have no medical background. It is not a requirement because it is primarily an office of investigation. We do not perform autopsies in our county. Upon death, everything changes. We go out and investigate the scenes, photograph the scenes and create a report, then we make a determination on whether or not this person needs to go to autopsy. It is pertinent that the coroner has an investigative background and can make an educated determination on autopsy.”

DR: The coroner’s primary responsibility is to determine the manner and cause of death when there is a sudden or unexpected death in the county. What criteria do you, or would you, use to determine if a body should be sent to El Paso County for autopsy?

CB: “There are new legislative standards that tell us which ones specifically have to go. Others that we send up are those that we are not sure of; if I can’t be absolutely positive that this is why your family member died, then I am going to send them up for autopsy. I take into account a lot of things, a lot of variables, including the scene and how they are laying and their medical history.”

RK: “If we go out on scene, and a person has got a medical history for obvious reasons as to why they have passed away, we would not lean toward sending this individual to autopsy. But after investigation of the scene, if anything becomes questionable, if the county would have any liability in this decision process that is being made, and it becomes questionable in the medical end, that individual will be sent to autopsy to typically El Paso County where a forensic pathologist performs an autopsy. We get back concrete results from the autopsy and the tox screens of blood and fluids in the body, which give us a concrete determination of death.”

DR: How are the duties of coroner different than those of a medical examiner/forensic pathologist?

CB: “A forensic pathologist does autopsies differently than a medical examiner would. A medical examiner will do a medical autopsy. You will give them the information about what you saw, and they will look in a specific area, maybe heart or lungs. They will do their autopsy in that specific area.

A forensic pathologist does everything — histology, bacteriology, toxicology. They take slices of everything. They are the ones that do an autopsy so intently that they will get up on a stand in court and they are the court-testifying experts. We (coroners) determine the cause as best we can given the information we have. We investigate every death that it’s a homicide until determined otherwise.”

RK: “The coroner, like in larger counties within our state, they will do the exact same thing in regards in going out, investigating the death, photographing the scene. Where the difference comes in, those are the individuals that also perform autopsies and, of course, then it is a required medical background with them because they need to have their credentials to perform those autopsies. Our county, and 80 percent of counties in the state, do not have a forensic pathologist. Larger communities have the funding, also, and that’s why you have those forensic pathologists in place because there is a lot more work to be done in the larger cities. That’s why we, as smaller counties, like 80 percent of the rest of the state, send those folks there and more or less pay another county to take care of that for us.”

DR: In your opinion, what top three traits or characteristics should one possess to be successful in the coroner’s office?

CB: “Medical knowledge, compassion and empathy and integrity. The medical knowledge speaks for itself, but when you go into a scene, the police have already been there and that literally scares people, even if it is is just grandma just died. You have to have the compassion and empathy to even start the conversation with them because they’re already scared; they’re already thinking they are being investigated because the police are there.

When I talk about integrity, I mean you give them the honest answers as well as you know them, and you are going to stand behind them and you are not going to waver or change. When I answer questions, it is the truth.”

RK: “I feel that it is imperative that an individual has some type of investigative background and law enforcement background and possess the wherewithal with some type, even if it is a small amount, of a photography background. We need folks who can operate photographic equipment, and not be using, say, cell phones, to photograph a death scene. Last, but very not least, these folks have to, myself being coroner and any individuals that would be brought on as deputy coroners, one of the strongest traits would be compassion.

I feel that integrity is a very, very strong part of this job. You have to have someone with the compassion, the honesty and the leadership to take care of these individuals. We are literally the last voice for the deceased, and it is imperative that our county has someone qualified for this position.”

DR: What strengths would you bring to the coroner’s office?

CB: “I have literally run that office since 2009 when Dr. (Dorothy) Twellman wasn’t there, so I know the budget, I know the finances, I know what state reports need to get out — when and where — and I know all the workings of the computer because I put in the system that we have now to find the death certificate and find the information all the way back to 1887. We have everyone’s death in the computer back to 1887. If a family calls and want some genealogical information, we can tell them whether or not we even have it while they are on the phone. The only thing we are working on now is how to take credit card information, then it will go online. We are getting there.

My strength (also) is my medical knowledge. I have the medical background. I have been a nurse for 39 years and I am a certified emergency room nurse, a certified critical care nurse, a certified nurse manager and I am a certified death investigator. With all of those, I have to have to have a certain amount of continuing education credits for each one of them. For certified death investigator, I have 579 credit hours alone.”

RK: “The strengths I can bring to the coroner’s office is raising the bar of death investigation within our county and making sure that the deputy coroners are very well qualified and trained to perform their duties when they go out on scenes. The office itself, we are going to create a code of ethics for the office, have a standardized reporting system for myself and the deputies and create a mass casualty plan for our county, working with local law enforcement and emergency personnel to make sure that is in place should a tragedy arise in our county.”

DR: What do you feel could be improved in the coroner’s office?

CB: “We could be scanning and getting our records in the computer faster. I would like to have a vehicle for the office so we could remove bodies and take them to funeral homes without the wait time of having a funeral home get there.”

RK: “There is a tremendous need for training of deputies before they are sent out on their own scenes, improving response times to scenes, and of course, making the appropriate decisions as to whether or not to send these folks to autopsy. We also need to shorten the time that the families have to wait to receive their death certificates.”

DR: Explain why you feel you are the best candidate for this position.

CB: “I love this job. I have a passion for this job. I think my years as an emergency and trauma nurse, a nurse manager, a director of nursing and then a hospice nurse, brought me to this. This is where my passion lies. I want to be that person that intercedes with that family because I meet the greatest families under the worst circumstances of their lives. They remember the first sentence I say to them, and then they don’t remember anything else. I always give them my card and cell number and tell them when they have questions to call me. I encourage them to call me, I don’t want them hanging out there with questions. I want their questions answered.

I think everything I have done in my life has brought me to this for a reason.”

RK: “I have a law enforcement degree and a photography degree that are both very important, and it makes me uniquely qualified for this position. I have utmost respect for doctors and nurses, but it is not a requirement of the field. Their education is based on treating the living. Upon death, everything changes.

I also have experience here in Fremont County, up and to the point that my opponent let me go when I decided to run as a candidate for coroner. I am currently a deputy coroner in Custer County. Between my education, all of my deputy coroner work here within this county, and all of my practical experience as deputy coroner within this county, it just leans toward me having the better background for the position.

I manage all the local funeral homes for the Holts within this area, and we deal with death on a daily basis. I feel my compassion to families and my need to help folks is very strong. Leadership is a very strong trait for the coroner’s office, and I think that my current employer, having me as manager of the local funeral homes, kind of makes a statement in regards to leadership and overseeing other individuals.”

DR: Is there anything else you would like to share?

CB: “We’ve done so much in the office in the year and a half. We’ve got specific forms that we use for the death reports, we’ve got things aligned. We go out and do education all the time to the fifth- and sixth-grade science classes in Florence and in Cañon. We also do classes at the high school, and we have been in every school showing kids what a coroner does. I also have done education in the senior centers. I love getting out there, me and my deputies, we have so much fun.”

RK: “I received the endorsements of Sheriff Jim Beicker, State Sen. Kevin Grantham and Art Nordyke, 30-year coroner and board member of the Colorado Coroners Association. Sheriff Jim Beicker has worked with both of us over the past few years. We work hand in hand with our local law enforcement. With him being involved with both my opponent and myself, there are reasons why, of course, he has endorsed me and not my opponent.

Under Colorado State Statutes, if something were to happen to the sheriff, the person to step up and fill that position until the sheriff’s position is filled, is the coroner of the county. I feel that I am also uniquely qualified for this because of my law enforcement degree and my law enforcement background. It is very important that all of these things be looked at.”