Brown County elected its new coroner last week, and the Republican candidate is ready to lead the office with professionalism.
The winner, Mike Moore, said he was glad to see that a majority of voters had decided he would be a good candidate to be elected to the office of coroner.
Moore, a captain with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department, has served as chief deputy coroner alongside current coroner Earl Piper since 2010. He holds a certification as a Medicolegal Death Investigator (MDI) through the Indiana Coroners Training Board. He began working as a deputy sheriff in Brown County in March 1990.
One of Moore’s goals for the office is to continue the level of professionalism that has been instituted in the office of coroner by Piper, who will continue to work as Moore’s chief deputy.
Moore received 4,111 votes against Independent opponent Kathy Smith, who obtained 1,567.
Smith served one term as Brown County Clerk and will leave office at the end of this year. In 2018, Smith defeated incumbent Clerk Brenda Woods by more than 400 votes.
Moore was elected the primary election this year with more than 1,600 votes.
Vivian Jo-Lynn Grimes also ran on the Republican ballot and received 717 votes.
Current coroner Earl Piper will be leaving the office of county coroner in January, after serving his second round of two consecutive terms.
Because of Moore’s qualifications, Piper said he could be sworn into the office immediately.
Piper said he was also the one to talk Moore into running for the office.
A coroner determines the manner of death in cases involving violence, accidents or unexplained circumstances and must notify the police agency with area jurisdiction of such deaths. A coroner also employs physicians to do autopsies when required and reports cause of death to county health officers. A coroner may also act as a peace officer, performing the duties of the sheriff if the sheriff is incapacitated or disqualified and does not have a chief deputy. The coroner can also arrest a county sheriff when a warrant is issued.
Piper first ran for coroner in 2002. He officially began in January 2003. He served two four-year terms before sitting out a term. He decided to run again and was ultimately elected to serve another two terms. Coroners cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.
Before deciding to run for the office, Piper worked as a deputy coroner.
A few years before Piper became a deputy in the coroner’s office, he worked at a funeral home that removed bodies different scenes.
While responding to the calls, the coroner would ask Piper to help him. That is when he decided to become a deputy coroner.
After 16 years as coroner, Piper said it is better organized now. During his time as coroner, Piper said he also worked to ensure his office had a professional environment and that all of the deputy coroners were adequately trained. He also established a physical office at his own office in the Bond-Mitchell Funeral Home, since the county did not have one.
In four years Piper could run for coroner again, but he said this will be his last term.
He also has cancer, which he has battled for a number of years. The job has added to physical wear-and-tear, but Piper said there are no regrets.
With Moore’s experience in law enforcement, Piper said he’s used to doing different investigations including death.
He said in the spring that law enforcement and the coroner have to investigate death in conjunction with each other and that Moore is “very detail-oriented.”
In Brown County, Moore’s career has required him to work with the coroners to gather evidence and attend autopsies. During that time, Piper and Moore decided they would work together.
One reason Moore ran was because Piper asked him to and the other was that Moore believes he’ll do a good job, and that if you were happy with the way Piper ran the office, you’ll be happy with Moore.
“The coroner’s office will be run with the professionalism that it has been under Coroner Earl Piper’s stewardship, direction and leadership,” Moore said last week.
‘Thank you to everybody’
Smith said last week that Election Day was “nerve wracking,” trying to see voters at the polls while also fulfilling her duties as clerk.
She lost her bid for re-election in the Republican primary race to challenger Pearletta Banks Smith received 1,048 votes and Banks won with 1,337 votes.
She said she was sad on both occasions, having lost her bid for re-election in the spring and the race for coroner this fall.
As an Independent candidate, though, she said she knew it would be difficult to overcome the amount of people who would vote on a straight party ballot.
In Brown County this election season, more than, 1,600 people voted straight ticket.
In the spring Smith said over four years she has helped fix issues in her office, including making corrections to the clerk’s filing system and getting those systems up to Indiana Code standards.
Smith said in the spring her Chief Deputy Clerk Laura Wert and employees in her office worked hard these last four years. She hopes they can continue working in the office after her departure.
“Thank you to everybody who has supported me in running for clerk, the four years as clerk, and (running for) coroner,” Smith said to the community.
“I appreciate everybody and there’s a lot of people I’m going to miss.”
