LITTLE ROCK — A year’s worth of complaints from Pulaski County law-enforcement agencies led to a request that county Coroner Garland Camper resign, Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines said Tuesday.
Camper, who had been the Pulaski County coroner since 2008, tendered his letter of resignation Monday afternoon, just hours after Villines asked for it.
The top county official said Little Rock police and the Pulaski County sheriff’s office had complained that Camper spoke too candidly with the media, making public details that investigators weren’t comfortable sharing.
When asked about law enforcement agencies’ complaints that he talked too much to the media, Camper declined to comment.
Villines said, “It was that ... and also giving opinions that went beyond the scope of his office, and created problems and issues for police agencies.” He said, “It’s important the coroner’s office work seamlessly with our police agencies. This isn’t CSI: Miami.”
While many law-enforcement and county officials were surprised by Camper’s resignation, Villines said his decision to ask for the resignation was “a long-term thing,”a decision arrived at after months of conversations with Camper. Ultimately, Villines said, he wanted to improve the relationship between the county coroner’s office and local police agencies.
“You know, [some agencies] may have felt like there were [relationship] improvements, and there were at times,” Villines said. “But the issue just kept popping back up, and as I looked at the future of the office I thought it needed to change.”
Pulaski County prosecutor Larry Jegley said his office was often the go-between for police departments and Villines. When Camper said something detectives didn’t like, he said, he’d hear about it.
“It was basically communication issues ... press relations, things of that nature,” Jegley said. “More to the point, the police agencies would rather, if something be articulated to the press, some police agencies thought their public information officers should have handled it more than Garland [Camper].”
Villines said there was no single incident or misstep that led him to the decision. When asked if a county coroner’s sharing of information about a homicide to the media was a fireable offense, he demurred.
“That’s not the point. It’s not a fireable offense,” Villines said. “I have to have confidence that things are being run right by my department heads ... and I became uncomfortable with that.”
He said all of his communications with law-enforcement officials had been oral and informal. No agency submitted a written complaint about Camper, he said.
Ahead of committee meetings Tuesday, several Pulaski County Quorum Court members said they were surprised to learn of Camper’s resignation
Donna Massey, Dawne Vandiver, Teresa Coney and Curtis Keith said they thought that Camper was doing a great job and they would like to hear more about what led to his decision to quit.
“I respect the judge’s decision, but I want to hear more about it,” said Vandiver, who is chairman of the County Services Committee.
North Little Rock Police Chief Danny Bradley did not hear about Camper’s resignation until Tuesday afternoon and was not actively involved in any complaints, according to department spokesman Sgt. Terry Kuykendall.
“The chief was very surprised,” Kuykendall said. “Until we know more about what happened ... we’ll refrain from making any comment.”
Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas would not comment about Camper’s resignation, according to department spokesman Sgt. Cassandra Davis.
“Whatever issues that we’ve had [with Camper], they’ve been in the past,” Davis said. “We respect the decision the judge made, and we don’t have any further comments.”
Although the Pulaski County sheriff’s office was the first Villines mentioned in regard to complaints about Camper’s behavior, that office’s spokesman Lt. Carl Minden said no complaints had been made to Villines since last June, when Camper told news media that deputies had prevented him from reaching the body of a pedestrian who was killed by a car.
According to earlier reports, Camper said he was not notified by deputies in a “timely manner” and was denied access to the woman’s body at the scene.
“We have not had any complaints with the coroner’s office. ... We have not had any discussion with [Villines] since that time,” Minden said. “We don’t know enough to make a comment right now.”
In the past year, Camper had been quoted in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette numerous times criticizing Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services paramedics for incorrectly pronouncing 52-year-old Pamela Harper dead outside a home early on March 26, 2010. Since then, two paramedics involved in Harper’s case have gone on 34-day suspensions.
Reached by phone Tuesday, MEMS Executive Director Jon Swanson said the ambulance service had no comment about Camper’s resignation.
In his resignation letter to Villines, Camper thanked him for the opportunity to serve the citizens of Pulaski County and said “it was my goal that whenever it came time to leave the office, I wanted to leave it in a much better position than I inherited.”
Camper’s office moved into a new morgue in May 2010, and Camper worked to get a new “mobile morgue” earlier this year.
Camper had been a county employee since 1994.
He went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and to Haiti after that nation’s 2010 earthquake to help identify and repatriate the bodies of people killed in those disasters..
Camper remains a voting member of the state Board ofEmbalmers and Funeral Directors, the board’s executive director Rachael McGrew said Tuesday.
A licensed embalmer and funeral director, Camper serves along with six others on the governor-appointed board, which oversees the state’s funeral home and crematory industry and its workers.
McGrew said he notified her via e-mail Tuesday morning that he wouldn’t be attending the board’s meeting that day but didn’t elaborate as to why.
For now, Camper’s duties will be performed by his chief deputy, Gerone Hobbs, according to Villines, who wouldn’t say whether Camper’s deputy will become the permanent head of the agency.
“That remains to be seen,” Villines said. “I’ve had one conversation with [Hobbs]. Before he assumes the position Monday, we’ll have some more.”
Hobbs, who will be paid a $77,000 salary, declined to talk to reporters.
Information for this article was provided by Chad Day, C.S. Murphy and L. Lamor Williams of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/13/2011