No action on family’s request
Comments (...)PRINCETON — The Bureau County Coroner has come under fire by a family who claims the coroner should not have been involved in the investigation into their loved one’s death.
The family of Leslie Ann Holmes, who died July 19, 2011, in Bureau County has asked the Bureau County Board to remove Coroner Janice Wamhoff from office and also asked the county board to adopt policies requiring the coroner to recuse herself when conflicts of interest exist.
The Holmes family of Farmer City and their Chicago attorney, Janine Hoft, attended the Jan. 3 regular meeting of the Bureau County Board’s Law Committee to present a written complaint against Wamhoff. They also attended Tuesday night’s special committee meeting on the matter. Wamhoff has also presented a written response to the allegations by the Holmes family.
Bureau County State’s Attorney Patrick Herrmann said he was asked by the Law Committee as to the committee and county board’s authority over the coroner. He said the coroner is a constitutional officer as determined by the state and has relative independence because of that. There is no statue which allows the county board to discipline the coroner or remove that person from office, he said.
The Law Committee unanimously agreed to recommend the full county board take no action against the coroner. The matter is expected to come before the full county board when it meets in regular session at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 14 at the Bureau County Courthouse in Princeton.
Looking at the history of the issue, the Holmes family stated in its three-page complaint that Wamhoff refused to recuse herself from the investigation even though Leslie, 39, had been dating Wamhoff’s son, Reese Wamhoff, at the time of her death. Leslie’s body was found by Reese on his property.
“Despite the clear conflict of interest and repeated requests to do so, Coroner Wamhoff refused to recuse herself from the situation,” the Holmes family stated in their complaint. “This severe failure of professional judgment has caused us to question the credibility of the on-scene investigation, as well as all other actions taken by Coroner Wamhoff.”
Though Wamhoff permitted the autopsy to be performed in McLean County, she still maintained authority over the case, the Holmes family stated in its complaint. Another county coroner should have handled all aspects of the case to ensure appropriate measures were taken and to avoid any bias or the appearance of bias, the complaint continued.
The Holmes family also claimed Wamhoff failed to provide accurate information to Leslie’s mother regarding Leslie’s diary taken from Reese Wamhoff’s house. The complaint also states Wamhoff failed to notify Leslie’s parents about the death until approximately six hours after her body was found. Also, the coroner inappropriately provided false information to a member of the public regarding Leslie’s health at the time of her death, the complaint stated.
In a statement written Jan. 9 to Herrmann and presented to the Law Committee, Wamhoff said Holmes’ parents are misrepresenting facts about their daughter’s death.
Wamhoff said the Holmes family never asked her to recuse herself from the investigation. Her first actions upon learning of Leslie’s death was to immediately contact Peg Maciejewski, deputy coroner, to have her take over the investigation. Wamhoff said she then contacted Lt. Randy Hasbrook with the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department to again remove herself from the investigation. When the autopsy was to be conducted, she asked for an Illinois State Police Crime Scene Investigator to be present.
Also, Wamhoff said it was she who decided to have the McLean County Coroner Office conduct the autopsy, and she was not in the room when the autopsy was conducted. After the autopsy, Wamhoff said she asked the forensic pathologist to talk to the family, which is a practice not typically done by a pathologist but rather was an exception for this family per her request, Wamhoff said.
As far as the diary, Wamhoff said the diary was released by Hasbrook and placed in her home mailbox and picked up by her son. When called by Mrs. Holmes to see if she (Wamhoff) had the diary, Wamhoff said she did not have it. At that time, she did not know it was gone from the mailbox. Hasbrook then got the diary from Reese and gave it to the family.
Concerning contacting the family six hours after the death, Wamhoff said she had been informed Leslie’s father had a medical condition which could have been exacerbated by traumatic news. The investigation officers did not leave the scene for more than two hours. After about an hour to compose themselves, Wamhoff, her son and other family members headed to Farmer City to notify the Holmes family, Wamhoff said
Concerning any statements to the public about Leslie’s health, Wamhoff said she had spoken about the death only as required by the professional responsibilities of her office.
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