Louisiana coroner accused of child abuse cuts sexual assault exam program
Having been elected with no opposition despite prior charges of child molestation, the chief medical examiner of a south-east Louisiana community with more than a quarter-million residents took office on Monday, poised to deliver on a pledge to eliminate an agency program that has helped collect key evidence in cases of sexual assault.
Dr Christopher Tape, 53, is expected to ultimately face an effort from voters to subject him to a recall election and force him from office, the top local government official in St Tammany parish has told the outlet, which exposed the new coroner’s criminal history.
But that drive to remove Tape must clear a relatively high procedural threshold now that he’s in place at the parish – or county, in Louisiana parlance – coroner’s office.
Tape was indicted in New Mexico in 2002 on charges that he sexually assaulted his then girlfriend’s daughter, who was seven at the time, as local TV station WWL Louisiana first reported in February. A court in that state later found prosecutors took too long between arresting and indicting Tape – who was a medical school student at the time – and tossed the charges, saying his constitutional right to a speedy trial had been unduly compromised.
Eventually, Tape landed work at the St Tammany coroner’s office – which primarily handles investigations of deaths in the parish with a population of about 270,000 but also offers a range of other services, including mental health commitments and sexual assault nurse examinations.
Tape in August signed up to run to take over the $11m office, and the incumbent – Dr Charles Preston – declined to seek re-election. No one else came forward as a candidate, meaning Tape was automatically elected to succeed Preston.
But the transition from Preston to Tape in an office that is roughly 50 miles (80km) north of New Orleans has been anything but smooth.
First, in October, Preston fired Tape, accusing him of improperly disclosing medical test results and violating the office’s confidentiality policies, as the local news site Nola.com reported.
Then, on 11 February, WWL Louisiana investigative reporter David Hammer not only revealed that a technicality had spared Tape from being tried on six charges of child sexual assault in New Mexico, WWL also uncovered how Tape in 2022 had struck an out-of-court settlement with a 26-year-old employee at his private forensic pathology practice who alleged that he made unwanted sexual advances toward her.
All of St Tammany’s top elected officials subsequently demanded that Tape resign without beginning his fouryear term, which began at midnight on Monday. But he made it clear he had no intention of satisfying those demands.
In fact, four days before his term kicked off, Tape announced that – after he took over – the coroner’s office would no longer provide its sexual assault nurse examiner (Sane) program. He said local hospitals instead would be responsible for the service, which involved collecting evidence that was vital for the prosecution of sexual assault crimes, as Nola.com reported.
Tape’s policy shift ignited a fresh outcry. The office’s Sane program worked with sexual assault survivors in a region that included four parishes other than St Tammany. Louisiana state lawmakers told Nola.com that the hospitals affected by Tape’s change were “not prepared to do this right off the bat”, especially ones in certain rural parts.
“To throw this in their lap without any real notice – it’s insane,” one of those lawmakers, state senator Patrick McMath, said to Nola.com.
The St Tammany parish president, Mike Cooper, has told WWL it is widely expected that voters will quickly try to recall Tape. Though Cooper anticipated most – if not all – of St Tammany’s elected officials would support the recall effort, getting such a measure on a ballot would legally require the certified signatures of 37,000 locally registered voters, or 20% of the parish’s electorate.
Gathering that many valid signatures, however, is somewhat of “a heavy lift”, state house member Jay Galle separately told WWL. And Galle said he would consult his fellow state legislators to explore whether there was some kind of way through the lawmaking process “to provide some way to find a different coroner for St Tammany parish”.
Tape nonetheless reported to work as Sunday turned into Monday. And after being sworn in, at a news conference he said he would not step down. He defended his decision to discontinue the Sane program, saying he was protecting local taxpayers from financing examinations for residents of other parishes.
Furthermore, he denied being an abuser.
“I don’t know what people want me to do,” Tape said. “It’s innocent until proven guilty. Do you not believe in that?”