S.J. Sheriff’s Office, Lodi police respond to investigation of Moore

Local law enforcement says claims against sheriff should not hinder investigations

After Dr. Susan Parson and Dr. Bennet Omalu resigned from their positions as forensic pathologists at the San Joaquin County Coroner’s Office, the San Joaquin County Counsel and District Attorney’s Office have begun investigating the two doctors’ allegations against Sheriff Steve Moore, according to Deputy Pete Smith.

Among other things, Parson and Omalu claimed that Moore interfered with investigations, attempted to influence their decisions and ordered the hands cut off of corpses without consulting them.

While Smith could not comment on the specific allegations, he explained that it is not uncommon for a sheriff to order hands cut off of corpses for fingerprinting. He does not believe that the county counsel and district attorney’s investigation will result in old cases needing to be revisited, nor will it negatively affect any ongoing investigations within the county.

“I don’t see any kind of impact on any of our allied agencies, and I haven’t seen this impact the day-to-day operations of our department at all. The district attorney’s office can feel confident in the full cooperation of the sheriff’s office. We welcome the investigation,” Smith said.

Smith added that the county’s human resources department has begun searching for candidates to fill the vacant forensic pathologist positions, and that medical personnel have been contracted to handle the tasks until permanent replacements are hired.

Lt. Sierra Brucia of the Lodi Police Department shared Smith’s belief that the investigation will neither hinder ongoing law enforcement efforts in Lodi nor require closed cases to be reopened.

“It’s possible that their resignations would impact ongoing investigations but that will really be determined by the Sheriff’s Department and what their plan is to address the resignations. We are not aware of any (Lodi) cases that would need to be revisited as a result of the resignations, however we will be aware of this possibility,” Brucia said.