The OCME’s web site stated that within the overwhelming majority of loss of life circumstances, it identifies the topic inside 24 hours.
In depositions, employees alleged that the cranium had been final seen in reconstruction clay, which made it seem like a model head. Kominek-Adachi argued that Serrano Sewell, who thought that the cranium was a prop, threw it away through the viewing room cleansing, which was wanted for inspection.
“It was complete incompetence,” Kominek-Adachi instructed KQED. “He has an workplace job and had no enterprise dealing with stays.”
In 2024, data obtained by the San Francisco Normal linked the pinnacle to an unidentified man discovered lifeless close to an encampment within the metropolis’s Lake Merced neighborhood. Depositions with different OCME workers present that makes an attempt weren’t made to find the cranium till “it was on the information.”
“The cranium was a vital factor within the OCME’s capability to determine Doe #82’s stays,” the swimsuit alleges. Nonetheless, it stated Serrano Sewell “made no effort to provoke an investigation into the whereabouts of the cranium,” nor did he reply to Kominek-Adachi’s emails about it.
As a substitute, he allegedly tried to cease her from getting a promotion by illegally directing her to take a polygraph check that different candidates for the place weren’t required to take. When she was finally promoted, she was given a short lived place, a loophole that allowed her to be fired at will, the swimsuit states.
Then, Kominek-Adachi and Serrano Sewell turned embroiled in a state shopper affairs case towards a funeral house in Placer County, which refused to cremate Kominek-Adachi’s grandmother, the swimsuit states. Though she stated her criticism was a private matter, the funeral house contacted the OCME, which Serrano Sewell allegedly seized upon as a chance to terminate her.
Courtroom data present that Serrano Sewell stated he discovered the cranium in February 2024, after a number of different workers “diligently looked for it and couldn’t discover it,” Urbanic stated.
“It was solely after Ms. Kominek was fired that they discovered the cranium, and that’s its personal story,” he stated.
The ordinance to approve the settlement might be launched on Tuesday after which assigned to the Authorities Audit and Oversight Committee, earlier than the Board of Supervisors finalizes the settlement over the subsequent few weeks.
KQED’s Alex Corridor contributed to this report.
