Who can arrest a sheriff? The coroner
Rumor has it that talk of the next Kootenai County coroner’s race is heating up already.
Yes, coroner. The office associated with deaths and investigating their causes. Entertaining murder mystery shows aside, this office isn’t usually one to which the average person pays much attention. So why would a local political group be so interested?
It may be simply that this group wants very much to make even nonpartisan offices more partisan. But there may be another reason: The coroner, it seems, is the only local office with the authority to arrest the sheriff.
True. And it’s been true for a very long time (not that we’ve needed it in Kootenai County). While we tend to associate coroners with deaths and inquests, the position originated with the idea of monitoring the integrity of other officials.
According to histories provided by coroner's offices in other states, going back nearly a millennium when William the Conqueror ousted the Saxons in 1066, the new England’s (mostly nonexistent) legal structure was overhauled. A system of administratively divided courts, sheriffs, and taxation slowly emerged.
Back then a sheriff’s — shire (county) reeve (official) — job was to collect taxes for the king (remember Robin Hood’s esteem of Nottingham’s sheriff), but the king didn’t always trust them to hand over the dough. So he created coroners (first by another name) to watch sheriffs and court judges, at least theoretically keeping their power in check not for the benefit of the people, but for the king.
By the time Henry II ruled in the 12th century and made the English legal system more sophisticated, the power of these sheriffs (quite different from what we know as a sheriff today) concerned him. He ordered an “Inquest of Sheriffs” and fired most of them, giving coroners power to arrest them on his behalf. “Coroner” in old Anglo-Norman language meant crown.
That’s oversimplified, but the point is the English common law tradition of giving the coroner authority to arrest a sheriff persists in many modern state statutes, including Idaho. Even though today’s sheriffs tend to be law-abiding and ethical, if you think about it, a department outsider on the books makes sense. It would be too thorny for local law enforcement, or say the county prosecutor, to arrest a boss or colleague. Feds wouldn’t have jurisdiction over a state law violation.
Who else?
Idaho Code sections 31-2217 and 31-2220, both enacted in 1863 before Idaho was even a state, authorize the coroner to serve process on or arrest a sheriff (and ensure sheriffs won’t be incarcerated in their own county jails). The coroner can also perform other duties of a sheriff when there isn’t one, or if the sheriff is unable.
No, it doesn’t come up often these days, but it does happen. In 1910 a King County, Wash., sheriff named Hodge was arrested by the coroner when he refused to enforce gambling laws or follow a grand jury’s indictment order.
More recently, in August 2021 Alabama’s Limestone County sheriff Mike Blakely was convicted of felony theft and ethics violations. County coroner Mike West became acting sheriff.
If you’re wondering what would happen if both a sheriff and a coroner colluded or were accused of being lawbreakers, a court can appoint an “elisor” — someone temporarily authorized to perform their duties.
I couldn’t find an example of this particular coroner’s function coming up in north Idaho, nor have our sheriffs current and prior given any reason to anticipate its need. Still, having checks and balances against any potentially powerful office is a key element to a stable and relatively free society.
Sholeh Patrick, J.D. is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Email Sholeh@cdapress.com.