Shawnee County commissioners made the best decision they could under the circumstances last month when they agreed to let Forensic Medical Holdings provide coroner’s services until January 2020, says county counselor Jim Crowl. Crowl clarified in an interview last week how the county responded to the firing of three coroner’s office employees who sounded alarms about the company’s quality of service. He also said commissioners learned in mid-April that county coroner Charles Glenn, who has held the position since 2014, planned to sell his company to FMH. Commissioners Kevin Cook, Shelly Buhler and Bob Archer voted in 2015 to privatize coroner’s office services and contract to have them provided by Mid-America Forensic Pathology, a company owned by Glenn. Commissioners in 2016 extended the county’s contract with his company until January 2020.
But Glenn earlier this year sold his interests in MAFP to FMH, which hired him. Commissioners voted June 7 to extend all of MAFP’s rights and obligations to FMH through January 2020.
The vote came after then-deputy district coroner Alan Martinez and coroner’s office employee Annette Carper told commissioners that Glenn’s office provided poor service to the county. Martinez and Carper, who were accompanied by coroner’s office employee Kristen Row, suggested the county return to the previous arrangement in which the coroner and his employees worked directly for the county.
(Read more: News – The Topeka Capital-Journal)