The Coroner's Division falls under our Administration Bureau. The Administration Bureau has several other divisions, the Fiscal Division, Civil Division, Training Division, Records Division, Recruiting Division, and Professional Standards Division, . It is commanded by Chief Deputy Steve Deering. The Administration staff provides direct support to the Corrections and Enforcement Operations Bureaus.

Our Coroners Division:
The Coroner Division is under the direction of a Sheriff’s Commander. This Division has two functional areas and performs the services required of the elected position of Sheriff and the Sheriff as Coroner. The functional areas are the Coroner unit and Civil unit.

The Coroner Unit’s responsibility is to investigate all deaths reportable to the Coroner and determine the cause, manner, and circumstances surrounding reportable deaths. The (Sheriff) Coroner is a county-elected officer acting under the authority of provisions of the California Government Code and Health and Safety Code. There are specific laws that define the Coroner’s powers and which vest in that person, the right and duty to investigate certain classes of deaths.

Not all deaths are reportable to the Coroner. Reportable deaths fall into 24 categories. Government Code section 27491 and Health and Safety Code section 10250 directs the Coroner to inquire into and determine the circumstances, manner, and cause of any death, which falls into one of these categories. Monterey County, like 42 other counties in California, is a Sheriff-Coroner county that gives the investigator dual powers as a coroner and peace officer. A unit supervisor within the Coroner Unit also chairs the county’s Child Death Review Team.

In 2006, a total of 1054 cases were reported to the Coroner Unit. Of this number, after an investigation, 764 cases were closed as Physician Certified deaths. The Coroner’s Unit in 2006 performed a total of 225 autopsies, 16 of those were conducted for San Benito County under a contract for forensic pathology services.

In any death into which the coroner is to inquire, the coroner may take charge of any and all personal effects, valuables, and property of the deceased at the scene of the death or related to the inquiry and hold or safeguard them until lawful disposition thereof can be made. The Coroner’s Unit makes family death notifications for deaths occurring in Monterey County. When requested by other jurisdictions, coroner personnel will also make death notifications to family members residing in Monterey County for people who have died in other states or other California counties. The Coroner’s Unit may also assist the people of the state, as appropriate, in the implementation of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.

There is a combined responsibility of the Coroner Unit and County’s Public Administrator office to ensure that indigents are buried, or by Board of Supervisors resolution in Monterey County, cremated. If estate funds are available for this task, this becomes a Public Administrator duty. If no estate funds are available, the Coroner Unit is responsible to see that this duty is carried out at county expense.