County coroner accused of stealing drugs from bodies

A coroner in Yakima County, Washingtonon, is charged with evidence tampering, making false statements and official misconduct after claiming he was drugged while on the job while allegedly using drugs he stole from corpses. You have to wonder if he is aware that there are living people you can call to buy drugs.

Coroner Jim Curtice reportedly has a history of drug abuse dating back to at least March 2023, when he got into a confrontation with officers who had escorted him home from a bar, according to the Yakima Herald-Republic. At the time, his wife blamed his behavior on post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his long career as a firefighter and paramedic.

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The whole story about stealing drugs from corpses began when Curtice was found unconscious at work. He said someone had spiked his drinks with hard drugs. But his story changed somewhat after an inquest revealed he had been using drugs regularly at the coroner's office, after which he admitted mixing drugs into his various daily drinks. A drug test detected fentanyl in his urine. The water in his kettle contained traces of fentanyl and cocaine. Investigators later found drugs just hanging out on his desk. Police eventually gave him a lie detector test, which likely caused the machine to explode.

It should be noted that lie detector tests are inadmissible evidence in a courtroom, but many police officers still sometimes use them to get an initial idea of ​​whether a suspect's statements are true. When told he had failed the lie detector test, he allegedly admitted to using drugs in his office three times a week for several months. When police asked how he got the drugs, they probably expected him to say it came from a dealer or the dark web. They probably didn't expect him to readily admit that he obtained the drugs from bodies that came into his medical examiner's office.

He reportedly admitted to mixing the drugs into his protein powder and mixing them into his tea kettle to provide some very weak evidence to his claim that he had been drugged by a mysterious, nefarious force. Curtice is currently on administrative leave and his case has been transferred to a prosecutor's office in another county to avoid potential conflicts of interest that would arise from remaining in Yakima County.