For more transparent and accountable sheriffs’ departments in California, we need AB 1608

No one prepares you for the premature death of a loved one. For families like ours, there isn’t a single moment we don’t think about them. I remember my step-son, Angelo, when I see his empty seat at the dinner table; there are holes in our hearts he used to fill with their laughter and conversation.

Angelo’s death, at the hands of Antioch police, has driven my family to act. Too often, families don’t receive desperately needed closure to heal after the traumatic loss of a loved one.

People across the nation may see Angelo Quinto, Miles Hall, and Oscar Grant as hashtags or even parts of a movement for justice. But their impact goes far beyond that. As communities continue to rally for justice, families like mine struggle with memories and moments lost.

Families deserve a fair, impartial, and transparent system of justice. Right now, California‘s flawed system does not serve us.

In 2009, when 22-year-old Oscar Grant III was shot and killed by BART Police in Oakland, the county that led the cause of death investigation for Grant didn’t have an independent medical examiner — the coroner is the sheriff. This resulted in a lack of transparency and accountability in the investigation, and, ultimately, no closure for Grant’s family — 11 years later, his death certificate still has the manner of death listed as “pending investigation.”

The system failed us again in 2019 and in late 2020 when 23-year-old Miles Hall and 30-year-old Angelo Quinto, my step-son, both of whom experienced a mental health crisis, suffered excessive and lethal force from officers called to help. Because the Contra Costa County’s (CCC) combined coroner’s and sheriff’s office led the investigations into Hall’s and Angelo’s causes of death, there was no accountability for the actions of the police and no justice for our families.

The CCC District Attorney decided against charging the police officers in Hall’s death after the county’s biased investigation, while the coroner ruled Angelo’s cause of death was due to “excited delirium,” a controversial syndrome that is both vaguely defined and widely disputed by the medical community.

The lack of independence between the coroner’s and sheriff’s offices throughout most of California has made objective investigations difficult to achieve in many cases. All families can ask for in the wake of irreversible tragedy is closure and the justice their loved ones deserve.

Unfortunately, current state law does not require a sheriff to have any medical background or certification to assume the duties of a coroner. In contrast, independent medical examiners are required to be licensed physicians and surgeons, doubly qualified as a specialist in pathology.

California is one of only three states that continues to allow counties to combine the offices of coroner and sheriff, despite the contrasting educational background and qualifications required for each position. All 58 counties in California have a sheriff’s department, but not all have a separate coroner or medical examiner’s office. Currently, in 48 counties, the duties of the coroner are combined with the sheriff’s departments. Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco Counties all have coroners independent from law enforcement.

This is why my family supports Assembly Bill 1608, which bears my stepson’s name. The Angelo Quinto Act of 2022 will bring necessary change by separating the duties of the coroner from the duties of the sheriff, strengthening the medical examination process, and increasing accountability and transparency when determining causes of death.

AB 1608 would ensure that local death investigations are conducted independently and objectively, reducing the potential for biased investigative medical examinations when determining the cause of death of an individual — especially in the context of in-custody deaths.

For families like ours, who have experienced injustice under the law, this bill will finally provide assurance that these investigations and processes are conducted ethically and fairly.