Yakima County coroner faces charges over using drugs he stole from corpses

Yakima County Coroner Jim Curtice is facing criminal charges in response to police allegations that he stole and used illicit drugs from dead bodies at work, and then lied about it.

Ellensburg Prosecutor Aaron Reiman is charging Curtice with official misconduct, evidence tampering and making a false statement, according to a complaint obtained Friday by The Seattle Times. Each offense is considered a gross misdemeanor with maximum penalties of 364 days in jail.

The coroner, embroiled in numerous controversies and facing several legal battles, has been asked by the Yakima County sheriff, the county auditor and each county commissioner to resign. Curtice has been on paid leave since Sept. 13.

Curtice is currently under fire for a transgression in August after he was hospitalized with drugs in his system. He told police someone had tried to poison him at work, according to NBC News, indicating Chief Deputy Coroner Marshall Slight — the man who replaced Curtice as the county coroner with Curtice on leave — was the most likely suspect. Curtice tested positive for cocaine and fentanyl.

But after a Yakima Police Department (YPD) investigation and a subsequent polygraph test was conducted, Curtice admitted to taking drugs at the office from the dead people he would examine. The YPD has asked a prosecutor to criminally charge Curtice with evidence tampering, making false statements and official misconduct. The prosecutor has yet to announce a decision, according to The Seattle Times.

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Curtice ignores recommendation to reclassify the death of an inmate

Despite a pathologist reclassifying the death of inmate Hien Trung Hua in the Yakima County Jail from “natural” to a “negligent homicide,” Curtice decided to ignore the recommendation, The Seattle Times discovered, ruling it an “accident” instead.

Outside experts who have described the case as a homicide told the Times Curtice made the wrong decision in declining to implicate the county in the death of Hua, pitting Curtice once again against many members of the Yakima County community.

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Looking at Hien Trung Hua’s death in Yakima County Jail

The Seattle Times reported Hua was arrested after a domestic disturbance broke out between him and his mother. Neighbors called the police to the Yakima apartment he and his mother were in at the time of the incident. Hua kicked his mother in the leg after she told him he couldn’t buy any alcohol. When police arrived, he blamed the physical attack on “the witch.”

According to his mother, Hua suffered from bipolar disorder among other conditions.

Hua, 41, was booked into the county jail for misdemeanor domestic violence assault. According to a letter obtained by The Seattle Times, the Yakima Police Department refused to book him in the city jail. During the process of arresting and booking him, officers found some of his medication was for treating schizophrenia.

His time in Yakima County Jail was miserable on multiple accounts. He allegedly refused to receive treatment, exhibited signs of paranoia and acted in bizarre ways while he was placed among the general population.

In November 2023, Hua died in King County Jail after six guards grappled with him for approximately 10 minutes. He was shackled, hit and held in a dangerous position by jail guards, according to the Times. Guards struck his legs and chest by punching and kicking Hua and held him facedown, a violation for restraining inmates, according to the jail’s custody manual, with a hood thrown over his face.

Hua was the third inmate to die at Yakima County Jail in 2023.

The coroner and pathologist concluded he died from health problems that began hours prior to the confrontation. But after The Seattle Times presented police reports, jail documents, medical notes, video recordings and interviews with experts, Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds, the forensic pathologist, changed his ruling and decided Hua died, at least partly, because of his struggle and how he was restrained. During the summer, Reynolds declared the manner of death as “negligent homicide.”

Less than a week after Reynolds updated Hua’s autopsy report, Curtice revised Hua’s coroner report and chose to ignore the pathologist’s recommendation.

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Curtice’s feud with Yakima County

Curtice never offered an explanation to Reynolds — who came out of retirement in 2022 to help Yakima County cope with its shortage of forensic pathologists — as to why he rejected the “negligent homicide” identification.

“It’s the coroner’s right to make that decision, but I think it’s a very strange decision,” Kathryn Scherpelz, associate director of autopsy and after-death services at UW Medicine in Seattle, told The Seattle Times.

Scherpelz said she believes Hua’s death was a homicide because the guards used force, and that the autopsy report and death certificate should match.

“You don’t want two different records,” Nicole Jackson, director of autopsy and after-death services at UW Medicine in Seattle, added. “That’s the perfect breeding ground for confusion, uncertainty and doubt.”

Last October, Hua’s mother filed a $50 million tort claim, obtained by The Seattle Times, against the county, accusing the jail of causing her son’s death and alleging an attempted cover-up. According to the tort claim, Hua received inadequate care while suffering from a severe mental health crisis as an inmate in Yakima County Jail, while it also claimed the county tried to obscure the circumstances of Hua’s death by telling his family the death was “natural.”

Both police and county investigations cited deficient work by the coroner’s office, according to The Seattle Times.

Calls for Jim Curtice to resign

In November, the Yakima Herald-Republic quoted Yakima County’s chief deputy coroner and medical examiner as saying they won’t work there if Curtice also does.

“I pretty much told them that if (Curtice) comes back, I won’t be there,” acting coroner Marshall Slight said, according to the Yakima media outlet.

Slight and Reynolds, who performed autopsies in the county for 40 years, said they no longer have faith in Curtice.

“I can’t trust him,” Reynolds said, the Herald-Republic reported. “Bearing false witness against thy neighbor is one of the big 10,” a nod to the Bible’s Ten Commandments.

The Yakima County sheriff, auditor and each county commissioner also have called on him to resign.

“Your recent conduct as Yakima County Coroner has caused us, as Yakima County Commissioners, to lack confidence and trust in your ability to properly perform your public duties as coroner. Therefore, we, as the board of Yakima County Commissioners, call upon you to resign from your position as Yakima County Coroner immediately,” the letter from the Yakima County officials, obtained by the Yakima Herald-Republic, read. “We sincerely believe your resignation is in your personal best interest, as well as the best interest of the Coroner’s Office, Yakima County and the public.”

The Herald-Republic’s editorial board has also joined the barrage of requests for his dismissal.

As Curtice was independently elected, he can only be removed from office by an election, a recall or a resignation.

Curtice was also the subject of more recommended charges last year when he kicked a sheriff’s deputy after law enforcement responded to his home when Curtice was intoxicated. Instead of pursuing charges, Curtice attended a treatment center in Utah.

Additionally, the recall against Curtice claimed he “often slept at his desk while at work and filed erroneous reports,” according to The Seattle Times.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contributing: Steve Coogan

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.