Coroner's Office to be Reviewed By County

Following the announcement that a lawsuit has been filed by the family of a former Nazareth area resident whose death scene photos were posted on MySpace and shown in NASD HS by the son of a coroner's office employee (read the post here), Northampton County will be reviewing the policies of the office according to an article in the Express-Times (read it here).

The article notes, "County Executive John Stoffa and Administration Director John Conklin met Monday with Coroner Zachary Lysek.Conklin said improvements need to be made to the office and the overview was not a result of the federal lawsuit. "(Lysek's) office hasn't been looked at in a number of years," Conklin said. "We want to take a look at his whole operation."

The Coroner's office is the latest of a string of embarrassing and potentially costly 'lack of control' issues at the County. The earlier embezzlement by a Nazareth resident uncovered by the State resulted in the review of the Clerk of Courts procedures (read an Express-Times article here) and the Voter Registration Office has been under review as a result of a series of incidents (read here and here) and public snafus that have damaged the office's reputation.