County coroner says he will leave post in January

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Dec 6, 2005 by PERRY SWANSON THE GAZETTE

El Paso County Coroner Dr. David Bowerman said Monday that he will resign before his term expires next year, ending a medical career that spanned five decades.

Bowerman told the Board of County Commissioners in a letter he will leave Jan. 2 and recommended the commissioners appoint Dr. Robert Bux, the deputy coroner, as his replacement.

Bowerman was deputy coroner from 1966 to 1981, when the incumbent coroner quit midterm and the county commissioners appointed him to the job. He since has run for re-election every four years. He wrote a measure that county voters approved in 2001 that exempted the coroners who are forensic pathologists from term limits.

Bowerman couldn't be reached for comment, but two county commissioners said he resigned because of health problems.

"He's been a very able public servant who graciously has decided to step down when he saw that it was his time," Commissioner Jim Bensberg said Monday night.

Bowerman, who is 77 years old, alluded to his physical condition in a 2004 interview with The Gazette. He said he had quit doing autopsies after performing more than 12,000 of the procedures. Colorado law says each county's coroner is responsible for death investigations but is not required to perform autopsies.

"The difference between being a coroner and the physical fitness that's needed to be a forensic pathologist is tremendous," he said. "If you're in there for two or three hours like you are with (a death involving) multiple stab wounds, your back is killing you."

Bensberg and Commissioner Sallie Clark each said they would support appointing Bux as Bowerman's replacement. Bowerman has been grooming Bux as his replacement, and Bux said Monday he plans to run for the office in 2006.

Like Bowerman, Bux is a certified forensic pathologist, a doctor trained to perform autopsies and investigate deaths. Bux has been the deputy coroner since 2002.

A state law increased the annual pay for coroner to $75,500 in 2003. The pay of $600 per year before that led Bowerman to seek other sources of income including charging other counties to perform autopsies for their coroners. That business, which Bowerman ran out of the El Paso County Coroner's Office, led to conflicts with the county commissioners.

In 2003 and 2004, Commissioner Tom Huffman accused Bowerman of using the county to subsidize his business because Bowerman kept a large portion of the fee he charged for outside autopsies. Bowerman argued his outside work had brought money to the county. He sued the county commissioners in January 2004 after they cut his budget for autopsies. Throughout the conflict, Bowerman bristled at the controversy and mostly avoided public statements.

"I'm a doctor, not a politician," he said at the time.

Bowerman and the commissioners reached a settlement in June 2004 that called for allocating more revenue from outside autopsies to the county.

Bux said Monday he was grateful for the recommendation that he be appointed coroner, and he praised Bowerman's work in the office. Under Bowerman's leadership, the Coroner's Office was one of the first in the country to receive certification by the National Association of Medical Examiners, Bux said. Bowerman was also responsible for moving the Coroner's Office out of the morgue at St. Francis Hospital into a modern facility on East Las Vegas Street.

"I don't think people understand what he built here over the years," Bux said of Bowerman.