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Wednesday, June 30, 2004

News

Coroner’s inquest called in Algiers case

Task force says police shooting death was ‘justifiable’


By MATT FURBER
Express Staff Writer

Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas and Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling announced Monday that a coroner’s inquest will be held in a continued investigation of the police shooting death last month of Ketchum resident Tom Algiers.

Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas and Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling announce Monday that an inquest will continue the investigation of the police shooting death of Thomas Algiers in May. Express photo by David N. Seelig

Blaine County Coroner Russ Mikel said that he wasn’t told in advance that an inquest was planned, and was later persuaded to let the Ada County corner conduct the inquest.

According to Idaho Code, Mikel has the responsibility to call such an inquest in Blaine County, but he was not informed of the press briefing, Mikel said in an interview after the news conference conducted by Femling and Thomas.

Femling said in a prepared statement that, according to a special task force called in to investigate the May 16 shooting, the death of Algiers was justifiable under Idaho Code 18-4011. The statute governs police use of deadly force.

Lt. Randy White of the Minidoka Sheriff’s Office headed the multi-county Magic Valley Critical Incident Task Force that investigated the shooting.

According to police, Algiers, 46, was killed shortly before 3 a.m. after police responded to a 911 call made by former Wyoming resident Daniel Hunt from the River Run Lodge at about 2 a.m.

Hunt told police he was attacked by Algiers, who was later slain by police in an early morning standoff at a campsite south of River Run Lodge, along the Big Wood River west of Ketchum.

Femling said when Algiers was found in the dense woods along the river, he refused to drop a knife he was carrying. Algiers cornered two county deputies, and Deputy Curtis Miller shot Algiers twice, the sheriff said. Soon after the events of May 16, Femling turned over the investigation to the task force.

Femling and Thomas said they requested that Ada County Coroner Erwin Sonnenberg head the inquest July 8 and 9 at the Blaine County Courthouse. A coroner’s jury would be selected from the current pool of eligible jurors.

Femling and Thomas both said the Algiers shooting was the first police shooting death in modern Blaine County history.

For that reason and because there has been considerable media scrutiny and public comment concerning the circumstances of Algiers’ death, Femling said he and Thomas were requesting that the Blaine County coroner convene a coroner’s inquest, "so that the public will have a full opportunity to hear and see all information surrounding Mr. Algiers’ death," Femling said.

Under Idaho Code when a coroner holds an inquest, he can form a jury of his own choosing and even rumor can be heard as the jury seeks an indictment.

"It’s my interpretation of the Idaho Code that it’s the coroner’s job to hold an inquest," Mikel said. "But that does not seem to be common practice in the state of Idaho."

Mikel said he was not informed of the press conference or of the sheriff and the prosecutor’s intentions until after the press briefing. Femling said Deputy Attorney General Jay Rosenthal was being asked to prosecute the case as "independent counsel," and to help facilitate the legal proceedings surrounding an inquest.

Rosenthal said in a telephone interview Tuesday that Mikel had agreed to appoint Sonnenberg to hold the inquest.

"He has signed the order directing the jury commissioner to summon a jury," Rosenthal said.

"(Tuesday), I had a meeting with Jay Rosenthal and I am feeling pressured to capitulate and authorize (Thomas and Femling) to go ahead with the inquest on their terms," Mikel said Tuesday. "I signed the forms for them to go ahead with it. Rosenthal has told me that the state does not follow the procedures that I had interpreted in the law. He wanted that I allow the inquest to happen (as is) common practice in Ada County. I am willing to follow common procedures and therefore authorize the coroner’s inquest to proceed, appointing Erwin Sonnenberg to act as a special deputy coroner for this inquest."

"This is a proceeding coroners don’t do," Rosenthal said. "Ada County does this somewhat regularly. I am trying to provide a service to this community. I highly recommend it."

Sonnenberg said Mikel had seen parts of the police investigation Tuesday that was talked about in the press conference on Monday.

"I probably have the only copy of the (task force) report in the whole county," he said.

"It is not the authority of the sheriff or the prosecuting attorney to decide whether or not an inquest is held," Mikel said before he signed the document allowing the arrangement. "I don’t have the time or resources to go up against the Attorney General’s office."

The exclusion of Mikel from the Algiers investigation began at the outset, the coroner said.

The job of a coroner is to recover any body when a death is unattended by a physician. According to Idaho Code, the coroner is supposed to be the first person notified in a case like the death of Algiers. The law also requires the coroner to file a death certificate that identifies the manner of death, be it natural causes, suicide, homicide, accidental or unknown.

According to the law, death certificates must be filed with the state registrar of vital statistics, a branch of the Department of Health and Welfare, within five days after the occurrence of a death. However, when investigation is required, medical certifications of the time, cause and manner of death may be delayed for up to 15 days.

Often, information necessary for Mikel to make a determination as to the cause or manner of death is slow in coming. In such cases he files death certificates that may not specify the manner of the death, as in the Algiers shooting. Instead, he checks a box on the death certificate labeled "pending investigation."

Algiers’ autopsy report completed by the forensic pathologist connected to the Ada County Coroner’s office indicates the cause of death, but the manner of death can only be determined from information related to the police investigation, Mikel said.

Femling alluded to the reason for excluding Mikel at the press briefing, explaining that "because of (Mikel’s) previous acquaintance and friendship with the descendent and the fact that he is a witness in the anticipated coroner’s inquest (we’ll) ask (Sonnenberg) to sit as coroner in this matter."

Rosenthal also said Mikel could be called as a witness at an inquest.

"I don’t see where I am a witness in any way," Mikel said. "But, I have looked into the process of how to recuse myself if I was a witness to the shooting events. As far as my relationship with Tom Algiers is concerned, he worked in my father’s yard as a handyman last summer."

Femling said previously that Mikel was not called to the crime scene until about 7 a.m., the morning of May 16, and he did not arrive on the scene until after 8 a.m. because he was delayed with another case.

Mikel said the morning of the shooting he was not permitted to look at the body and begin his medical investigation.

The head of the task force "Randy White sealed the body bag," Mikel said.

"I am not trying to stir things up. I just want to be sure that the process is followed according to the law," Mikel said, explaining that he had not decided whether or not to call an inquest himself because he had not received any information from the police investigation.

Mikel said when he began to investigate the crime scene for his medical report on May 16, he did not take many pictures because Femling informed him that he would be supplied with copies from the police investigation.

He said he did receive autopsy reports and pictures showing the condition of Algiers’ body resulting from injuries sustained from numerous machete blows and two gun shot wounds, but he had received no information from the police investigation, before the press briefing.

Mikel questioned where the sheriff and the prosecuting attorney procured the authority to call for an inquest, since he had not been consulted. Rosenthal said that can be the order of things in Ada County.

"Even if I don’t conduct the inquest, it is still my responsibility to authorize the inquest," he said. "I have asked for pictures, anything (from the task force investigation). I’ve gotten nothing. It is the police investigators’ responsibility to conduct an investigation and report to the coroner. I presume it was homicide. I need to determine if it was justifiable or not."

Mikel said the results of a coroner’s inquest, which would be a verdict determined by a panel of six jurors of his choosing, would help guide how a prosecutor might pursue any possible charges against Miller.

The prosecutor is not bound by the findings of the coroner’s inquest, but all witnesses are under oath and anything they say can be used during a trial, Mikel said.

"I want to get to a good solution and get the facts out in the case, he said. "I don’t want to do anything else."

Meanwhile, a separate investigation being carried out by the Idaho Attorney General’s office related to the series of events that led to Algiers’ death involves an aggravated battery charge against Hunt.

A preliminary hearing for Hunt that had been set for Tuesday, after already being rescheduled twice since the end of May, has now been pushed back to Aug. 3.

Hunt told police he allegedly had been attacked by Algiers and that he had defended himself with a machete.


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