Douglas County Coroner Faces Removal From Office; What's Next

DOUGLASVILLE, GA — Douglas County Coroner Renee Godwin is under fire, but officials disagree about whether problems outlined in a report justify removing her from office.

In October, a grand jury convened by Chief Superior Court Judge David T. Emerson recommended that Godwin be removed from her elected office "due to the lack of knowledge of the responsibilities of a coroner." While her biography on the Douglas County website says Godwin has 27 years of experience working in law enforcement, there is no mention of medical training.

The nonbinding report cited the smell of decaying bodies seeping through the HVAC system into the county museum, mismanagement of the coroner's office and failure to report child deaths in a timely manner as problems for which Godwin was responsible, and that should lead to her removal. The failure to report child deaths has been since been remedied, the report said.

A recent visit to the coroner's office by a Patch reporter found the office closed and locked at 9 a.m. Godwin did not return a call seeking comment.

A state group that was given the ability by a new law to remove coroners from office has declined to seek Godwin's ouster.

The grand jury's report was forwarded to the Georgia Coroner's Training Council, which by a new law has the right to remove coroners from office. Godwin would be the first in the state to be removed.

Edgar Perry, the coroner in Turner County, chairs the training council. He says his group has turned the grand jury's report and its investigation over to the state attorney general's office. A spokesperson there said she would not comment on an open case.

Perry said Wednesday that "most of what we found were local issues having to do with the county commissioners." He said some of it was budgeting but wouldn't elaborate because he didn't have the report in front of him.

The chairman of the county commissioners, Romona Jackson Jones, referred questions to its media relations office. A person in that office said the head of communications would not be back until Monday and that she could not comment.

It is unclear when a decision will be made on Godwin's tenure. The state attorney general's office is reviewing the case and will report back to Emerson, Perry said.

Mark Alcarez, a former deputy coroner who is running against Godwin in 2020, said he thinks everybody is just trying to be very cautious regarding the matter.

"I know Edgar," he said, "and he's just trying to be careful."

Some in the community have called the investigation political and unfair.

One of Godwin's attorneys, Christina J. Peterson, also serves as the vice chair of the Douglas County Democratic Party. She said the investigation into Godwin is all politically motivated.

"Poli-tricks. I would summarize the grand jury's general presentments as ‘poli-tricks,' Peterson told WSB-TV. "(It's) the fact that they're trying to use some of these things — some of them not in her control or in her power, such as where the morgue is located — it looks bad to the public when, in essence, she's not in violation of any law or any order."

But former longtime Douglas County Coroner Randy Daniel, whom Godwin defeated in 2016, said Godwin is not doing her job.

"She don't go on no calls," he told Patch recently. Godwin sends her deputies out to death scenes, he said. It's personal for him, Daniel said, because he used to stay with the families who had experienced a death and pray.

"Your heart breaks" for them, he said.

There was no need for the county to spend money on a morgue, Daniel said. The funeral homes always let him store bodies in their coolers.

"I had keys to every funeral home in the county," he said. "It never cost me a dime."

But some in the county have frowned on the grand jury's report and the fact that the six-person panel asked that their presentation be published in an Atlanta newspaper and on the county website.

An Oct. 23 email from Douglas County Attorney Ken Bernard to Douglas County District Attorney Ryan Leonard and Emerson said there are issues beyond Godwin's control, such as the county budget, according to WSB-TV.

"My legal concerns relate to the clear attack on a county official. Even though grand jurors are charged with inspection of offices, the courts have clearly ruled that attacks on individuals are improper unless an indictment or special presentment is filed," Bernard's email reads.

"The current presentment clearly and specifically casts reflections of misconduct and impugns the coroner's character. When read as a whole, everything is aimed at the coroner," Bernard also wrote. Statements about her being "unethical and unprofessional" are specific character attacks in violation of established case law, he said.

Bernard did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Court records contain a letter dating back to July from the National Action Network to Leonard requesting a meeting to discuss Godwin’s case and what the organization sees as a pattern of complaints with racial overtones, according to WSB TV.

Leonard did not return a phone call seeking comment. Emerson's assistant said he would have no comment on the case in general.

The grand jury was asked to investigate the coroner's compliance with the requirements of the reporting child deaths in a timely manner; examine the records, accounts, property and operations of the coroner, including a review of the expenditures and budget compliance; and to examine the operations of the office as to the conditions of the storage of bodies in the Douglas County Museum located in the old courthouse downtown, according to their report.

The grand jury found that:

1) Godwin had not been in attendance at the child fatality review board's meeting but was now in compliance. A contempt hearing held by Emerson about reporting child deaths was worked out with prosecutors. Several recommendations were made.

2) That the "Coroner admitted under oath that the reason she applied for the position is: because she has compassion for people. She also admitted that she does not have any leadership experience, any management experience of how to run an office. Ms. Godwin has on several occasions seemingly abused her office, and allowed for unethical or unprofessional! [missing word in report] to occur in the Office." The grand jury recommended that "the job responsibilities of a coroner for Douglas County be revisited. This position should entail having management skills, knowledge of cleaning, and upkeep of a morgue."

3) The panel also "found that the storage of bodies in the Douglas County Morgue was unacceptable for the citizens of Douglas County, and the practices and procedures thereof require change and revision."

Many improvement recommendations were made, including training.

In 2015, the year before Godwin was elected, the prerequisites for being a coroner were: Be at least 25 years old, registered to vote and in possession of a high school diploma, according to an AJC article.

So Georgia’s coroners are grocers, nurses and morticians; farmers, pastors and hairdressers; plumbers, teachers and handymen. In one county, the coroner was a boat-motor mechanic. In another, the coroner is the owner of a shooting range, according to the AJC then.

Of Georgia’s 154 coroners, one was a physician.

Godwin's biography online says she has spent over 27 years as a law enforcement professional, serving the metropolitan Atlanta area.

"As a Georgia certified peace officer, Coroner Godwin has performed various law enforcement duties, including but not limited to: (a). Providing security and law enforcement services inside the jail; (b). Patrolled various neighborhoods throughout the Metropolitan Atlanta area; (c) Coordinated law enforcement training classes at the Fulton County Public Safety Training Center; (d) Crimes in progress and investigated open cases as assigned; (e) Coordinated recruiting; performed background investigations on Police Candidates; and managed the Agency’s State Certification and National Accreditation," according to her bio.

In addition to obtaining peace officer certification, Godwin said she is a peace officers standards and training certified general instructor, certified gang resistance education and training instructor, taser instructor, and is a board member and a state certified assessor for the Georgia Police Accreditation Coalition (which offers professional certification for Georgia’s various law enforcement agencies).

Godwin is a member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners, Georgia Coroners Association and the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives.

The grand jury's report on Godwin was forwarded to the Georgia Coroner's Training Council.

Sen. Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega) introduced SB 154 this year that "would extend the Georgia Coroners Training Council’s duties to include reviewing complaints from outside parties and making recommendations concerning the retention, suspension or removal of a coroner from their position."

Gooch did not return a phone message that asked what sparked the new law.