YAKIMA, Wash. – The Board of Yakima County Commissioners moved to officially request the resignation of County Coroner Jim Curtice Monday morning.
“Your recent conduct as Yakima County Coroner has caused us, as Yakima County Commissioners, to lack confidence and trust in your ability to perform your public duties as Coroner,” the Board said in a letter signed by Commissioners Amanda McKinney, Kyle Curtis and LaDon Linde.
Yakima Sheriff Robert Udell and County Auditor Charles Ross also signed the letter.
Linde previously brought the matter up during a County Commissioners’ work session on Thursday, Oct. 10, during which the Board voted unanimously to sign the official call for resignation.
“We don’t come to this point easily,” Linde said. “…When the official misconduct, I would say, has risen to this level…I don’t think we can sit still.”
The county coroner recently admitted to stealing drugs off of dead bodies in his office, taking the pills at work and faking evidence to pass the story off as an attempted poisoning, according to an investigation by the Yakima Police Department.
“There is no home, no household that is left untouched by some of the issues that have brought us to this point,” McKinney said. “We as elected commissioners, I believe, have committed to holding ourselves to high standards.”
YPD sent the investigation into Curtice to the Ellensburg Prosecutor’s Office. YPD recommended charges of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, official conduct and tampering with physical evidence.
