KOTA Territory NewsTask force: Statewide medical examiner needed in South Dakota

Task force: Statewide medical examiner needed in South Dakota

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    SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) _ Legislation is not planned for the 2010 session, but a task force says South Dakota's county coroners should be replaced with a statewide medical examiner system.
    Task force member Carol Twedt, a Minnehaha County commissioner, says it wouldn't make much sense to press for the change until South Dakota's finances improve.
    Minnehaha County's longtime coroner, Brad Randall, plans to retire sometime next year and says there's no financial incentive for private pathology firms to hire his replacement.
    That would leave eastern South Dakota in search of someone to perform an estimated 100 forensic autopsies each year and testify at criminal trials.
    Randall and the task force say the best way to find another forensic pathologist is by making that person a part of state government.
   
    (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)