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.