Falsehood – The incumbent’s “service to Arapahoe County over the last seventeen years has been characterized by honesty and integrity.”
The incumbent has used this phrase not only in print, but also in candidate forums where he has assured the voters that he is honest.
Truth – The incumbent entered into a secret agreement with Wes Riber, the Douglas County Coroner, to dramatically overcharge the taxpayers of Douglas County for autopsy services.
Riber had tried to get the County Commissioners to allow him to hire a doctor to do autopsies for him as a staff member (as opposed to just hiring them on a contract case-by-case basis).
The Arapahoe County Coroner (the incumbent) had been doing some autopsies for Mr. Riber as needed, along with some other forensic pathologists, such as Dr. Gallaway.
You will remember that the incumbent has been running his own personal business out of the Arapahoe County Coroner’s office for many years, doing autopsies for other counties and pocketing more than 99% of the income for himself.
In 2009 or early 2010, Wes Riber (the Coroner of Douglas County – who will hopefully be retired for good on November 2nd) contacted the incumbent Arapahoe County Coroner.
Riber had a very unusual request of the incumbent. He asked the incumbent to please jack-up his prices, so that the Commissioners would see how high the costs for contracting-out the autopsies had become, and so Riber could successfully lobby the Commissioners to allow him to hire an in-house doctor.
The incumbent agreed to this secret deal, and immediately his prices for autopsies went up to $1,850 per case.
You can view the payment vouchers containing the billing of Dr. Gallaway, and the incumbent, to see for yourself.
Invoices paid to Dr. Gallaway, click [here].
Invoice paid to incumbent, click [here]
Riber got the Commissioners to pay the incumbent’s bills, which were nearly twice the going rate for autopsies. Remember, Dr. Gallaway charges only $975 per case.
Riber was successful in getting the Douglas County Commissioners to allow him to hire an in-house doctor, so it was a “win” for him.
The incumbent Arapahoe County Coroner got a bunch more money in his pocket, so it was a “win” for him.
The losers? Only the Douglas County taxpayers who were bilked out of their hard-earned money so they could fund this scheme between two unethical Coroners. But since this never made the papers, they never found out. Too bad.
Here in Arapahoe County, District Attorney Carol Chambers confronted the incumbent about this when she heard what had happened. How did the incumbent respond?
Here are the words of Carol Chambers as she described the event. “He [the incumbent] told me that Wes asked him to increase the cost of Douglas County autopsies so that he (Wes) could justify going to his commissioners to ask them to approve hiring a pathologist. Doberson [the incumbent] said he did this for Wes. He did not in any way indicate that he saw anything wrong with doing this.”
To top it all off, Douglas County Coroner Wes Riber is one of only two sitting Coroners who have endorsed the incumbent’s race to keep his seat.
QUESTION:
Do YOU see anything wrong with this?
If you do, it is because you have a moral compass, and some ethical standards.
QUESTION:
Is there possibly a “quid pro quo” relationship between Riber’s endorsement of the incumbent, and the financial shenanigans that they have had in the past?
QUESTION: Is it time to retire the incumbent, who has no problem filling his pockets with taxpayer money?
