Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

Smith, Begay seek county coroner position

Jann Smith and Beverly Begay are running for La Plata County Coroner.

Smith grew up in the county and was an emergency medical technician for the Los Pinos Fire District about 15 years ago. She went to law enforcement academy, worked as an Ignacio Police reserve deputy for a couple of years and then for the Southern Ute Police for 18 years in communications, victim resources, and budget management. She has been certified as a death investigator for 15 years.

She served as a deputy coroner for many years and was appointed coroner when Dr. Carol Huser retired. "I enjoy my job, serving the people, helping families through a time of crisis," she said. "I've served the county for 28 years."

Begay said she has around 34 years of criminal justice experience. She started as a radio dispatcher at age 17, went to college, worked as a district attorney's investigator, went to the police academy in Santa Fe, was a death investigator and assisted the pathologist in determining manner of death.

"My passion was forensic science," Begay said. She worked in the Houston, Texas medical examiner's office for 13 years as a forensic investigator and managed a budget of more than $2 million. She is board certified as a medical death investigator. Her husband was a homicide investigator for the Houston police. Now he works for the Durango Police Department. "Retirement isn't in our vocabulary," she said.

"With my passion for this and my compassion for people, I will do a good job," Begay said.

Smith was asked about what the coroner does.

"We represent the deceased individual," she said. "We work with law enforcement and the families, state and federal agencies to determine the cause and manner of death. That goes on the death certificate."

Smith said she isn't certified to do autopsies. A forensic pathologist from Grand Junction does that. "I assist in every one we do," Smith said.

Begay was asked what brought her to La Plata County. She said she and her husband have been visiting since 1989, and they moved here two years ago from Houston. Their son and daughter live here. "This is home," Begay said.

She was asked how she'd adjust to a two-person department after the big Houston office. "With a staff of two, I can see where the community would benefit from our services" such as prevention through education or identifying road sections with pedestrian fatalities.

"I'm familiar with the responsibility of a coroner and deputy chief coroner, and the legal requirements of a coroner," Begay said. Coroner and medical examiner are different in that one is elected and the other isn't, she said. Her experience has been in a medical examiner's office rather than a coroner's office. She has assisted with external examinations before autopsies.

"The autopsy actually begins at the scene where the person died, because the doctor can tell why a person died, but they don't know the manner of death (such as accident or suicide) without information from the scene," Begay said.