Coroner’s Office reclassifies officer-involved death as a homicide

STOCKTON — Abelino Cordova-Cuevas’ death during a struggle with Stockton police two years ago was initially classified as an accident by San Joaquin County SheriffCoroner Steve Moore, despite the strong opinion of his chief medical examiner that it was a homicide.

Last month, the Coroner’s Office reclassified the manner of death as a homicide, defined as death at the hands of another.

The attorney representing Cordova-Cuevas’ family says that key documents were missing when the Sheriff ’s Office responded to a subpoena for discovery that would have shown clearly that CordovaCuevas’ death was homicide.

“In light of what was wellknown by (Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Bennet) Omalu immediately when he completed his autopsy that this was indeed a homicide, and only after having to force the sheriff by exposing the failure to produce documents did the truth finally come out where the Sheriff ’s Office has changed it back to a homicide,” attorney Greg Bentley said last week.

“We are asking the district attorney to investigate the involved officers as well as the circumstances around the failure to produce documents,” Bentley said. He believes the actions of the Sheriff’s Office are a violation of public trust.

The county District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on this report or on the status of the countywide protocol investigation that is standard procedure for all officer-involved deaths.

Omalu, in an email, stated that “the sheriff had apparently overruled my opinion and made (the manner of death) an accident without even consulting me.” That was the straw that broke the camel’s back in Omalu’s decision to leave the Sheriff’s Office.

Noting it has been a pattern of the sheriff to ignore his findings in officer-involved deaths, Omalu wrote: “There is no reason whatsoever any of these cases should be made an accident. This is simply ridiculous.”