Now under fire from outside news sources, Lewis County Deputy Coroner Carmen Brunton said the office is ready to give its side of the story.

The interview with Brunton came a week after a jury found Coroner Terry Wilson�s ruling inaccurate, when he determined former Washington State Trooper Ronda Reynolds� death was a suicide. Shortly after the unprecedented jury trial, three complaint letters against the coroner�s office came under scrutiny, and Brunton said it�s time to defend against those complaints.

Though she said Wilson won�t talk to the press because he is busy, Brunton said she�s closer to the cases because her position is full-time and she was on the scene for most of them.

"We�ve kept our mouths shut for a long time," she said Monday. "We want to show that our first priority is dignity and respect for the deceased."

She sat down with The Chronicle Monday to give an account of the incidents she said would refute KOMO news� reports.

Missing Equipment

David Brooks died of a heart attack at his Randle home in 2003. He was single and lived alone, and his parents lived out of the state.

Shortly after he died, the coroner�s office received a complaint letter from Brooks� landlady alleging that Wilson had stolen a long list of valuable electronics from the home of the deceased. The list includes dozens of items from digital cameras and laptop computers to a toaster oven and a bike pump.

But Brunton alleges that the landlady, Doris Barney, was disgruntled because she wanted into the house to take items and back-rent she said Brooks had owed.

"It�s the coroner�s job to take care of that property," Brunton said. "I kindly told her �no, not until I notify his next of kin.�"

The office did pack up everything, according to state law, but they shipped it to Brooks� parents, who said nothing was ever stolen, Brunton said.

But Barney has another story. She said the disabled Brooks had been working for her and that she and her husband checked up on him regularly. Since she was in the house often, she said, she knew what items were there before coroners took an inventory.

Barney said an inventory was written down only after the home was cleared out for auction, and many of the items were never reported to her or the father.

Asked if she was a disgruntled landlady, Barney laughed.

"A disgruntled landlady? What are these coroners trying to pull?" She said. "Terry Wilson doesn�t have a clue what his people are doing. If he does, he�s covering it up."

In one of the 2003 incident documents, Lewis County Prosecutor Michael Golden, who was a deputy prosecutor at the time, told Barney that "I have no information that would indicate anything other than less-than-perfect bookkeeping in the creation of the inventory list."

Brunton said she later received flowers and thank-you letters from the family, an obvious sign that they had no ill will toward the office. Since Brooks� father wrote the original letter of complaint,

Barney said that was unlikely.

"I�m tired of people not knowing the truth," Brunton said, referring to a KOMO 4 news report on the complaint letters. "We�ve done nothing wrong."

Tissue on the Tracks

Two years ago, a train hit and killed 17-year-old Matt Daarud at Stan Hedwall Park in Chehalis. The coroner�s office responded to clean the tracks, but were met with family and the press, Brunton said.

She said pieces of the boy�s body were everywhere, and though the office did what they could, some small pieces of the tissue would remain on the tracks because it was dangerous and illegal for her deputies to remove them. When asked about the tracks closing down so the coroner could work that day, Brunton said she utilized three agencies to get as much off as she could.

"His father and family were determined to see their son," she said. "I understood, absolutely. But I begged and pleaded them not to."

She said she convinced the family to leave what she called a horrific scene.

Days later, the office received a complaint letter from a woman named Connie Todd, who Brunton said left a fake address and made false claims that she knew the family. Todd said in the letter she found Daarud there, "in little pieces, scattered everywhere."

She added that she suffered deep emotional distress and mental damage.

She claimed that she was directed to keep the tissue in her home freezer overnight because the coroner wouldn�t pick them up. Brunton, sometimes welling up with tears, said it�s just not true. She said Todd refused to bring the tissue to the office that night, so Brunton directed her to keep it in a cool place.

"We never figured out who (Todd) was," she said. "I couldn�t believe it. When we lose someone like (Daarud), it hurts everyone. It�s a horrific thing, but we take our jobs seriously and helping the family is our number one."

Both the Daarud family and Todd were unavailable for comment.

Body Left Outside

In 2000, Charles Bardsley died of a heart attack on the way to the hospital. Shortly after, the responding aid unit decided to bring his body back to the home to wait for transport to a mortuary. Brunton said the office was accused of leaving the body at Bardsley�s home for the family to see, but said there are a few problems with that notion.

While the family did come home to see their father on a backboard in front of the house, Brunton said the coroner legally can�t take the body until a licensed vehicle arrives from third parties that are contracted through the coroner�s office. That vehicle didn�t come that day until hours after the family came home.

Incident documents show that a sheriff�s deputy and the coroner waited for hours while the body lay there, rather than just leave the scene like Brunton�s been accused of doing, she said. The fact that the aid unit brought the body back was the first mistake, she said. Those aid workers said they left the body outside because they wanted to shield it from being viewed by the wife, who suffered from Alzheimer�s.

KOMO met with the Bardsleys, who blamed all parties involved including the coroner�s office.

"I don�t even think they should be in the coroner business," said Cindy Bardsley, Charles� daughter-in-law, in the report.

Brunton said the fact that the family tried to sue the coroner�s office and the aid unit was part of the grieving process.

"Aid shouldn�t have brought it back, but they did the best that they thought at the time," Brunton said. "Thinking about it still upsets me, but it�s one of very few times where the family wasn�t happy with our decisions."

The Ronda Reynolds Case

Brunton spoke briefly about the case on behalf of Wilson. She said she�s not surprised a jury found Wilson�s ruling inaccurate, because of the story that was weaved for the jury by Reynolds� mother, Barbara Thompson, and her attorney.

The original ruling of suicide was the "best ruling given the evidence" for Wilson, Brunton said.

Though the ruling flip-flopped a number of times, changing it from suicide to "undetermined" the first time was a favor to the grieving Thompson, Brunton said.

"Honestly, from day one our hearts have been broken for Miss Thompson," Brunton said. "We thought, �what is it gonna hurt? It�ll make her feel better.�"

Thompson disagrees. She said Tuesday that Brunton changed the ruling because of her own theories on the case.

"When I went and talked with Carmen, she told me she believed it was homicide," Thompson said. Brunton denies the claim.

Brunton said she doesn�t know what will come of the ruling, but said she�ll do what the judge orders the office to do and has no motives either way in the case.

"We did everything that we could to try and help (Thompson), but we didn�t have the evidence to substantiate something other than suicide," Brunton said.

She also said she wouldn�t call some of the witnesses brought to the stand "experts."

Brunton said she doesn�t know if she, Wilson or witnesses brought to the stand in the Reynolds case will run for coroner next year. She said the office wanted to speak out because of news reports degrading the office, and said she and the other deputies take the utmost care with their duties.

"You�re not a number here, you�re a name," she said. "I don�t care if you live under a bridge or are a very rich person. Everyone has someone who loves them, and we care about that." Thompson said she spoke with all the families involved with these incidents, and said those families were upset for a reason.

"These aren�t the only cases," Thompson said. "There�s so many where (the coroners) have done the improper things."

Thompson: New Hearing Likely in Reynolds Case

A new hearing may be held in January to decide if Ronda Reynolds� death certificate should be changed from suicide to another ruling, her mother Barbara Thompson announced Tuesday.

A jury recently decided that Lewis County Coroner Terry Wilson�s determination that Reynolds killed herself in 1998 was inaccurate. The only other people home at the time of the death were Reynolds� husband Ron and his two boys.

Though Thompson said she was excited, after years of studying and working on the case, to get the inaccuracy ruling in the open, she said it�s only the first step in finding the truth. Now, her attorney Royce Ferguson will attempt to get a hearing in Lewis County Superior Court to change the death certificate, she said.

In the trial questioning the suicide ruling, jurors were not asked to determine what role Ron Reynolds played in his wife�s death, but he has come under fire as the number one suspect in Ferguson�s eyes as well as locals who comment online at Chronline.com and other news Web sites. Ron Reynolds refused comment several times after class Tuesday at Toledo Elementary School, where he works as the principal.

Sharon Bower, superintendent of Toledo schools, said she�s never once received a complaint from parents or even a call of interest into the Reynolds case since it began in 1998. She said she found that fact interesting.

Ronda Reynolds was found dead in her home in December 1998, a bullet through her head and a pillow over her face. Coroner Wilson originally listed the death as undetermined, but changed the ruling three times before settling with suicide.

Andy Campbell: (360) 807-8208

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