State lawmakers say they've been blindsided by St. Tammany Coroner-elect Christopher Tape's sudden decision to cut a program that provides crucial health services to survivors of sexual assault in a five-parish region.
Tape announced the policy change in a statement emailed to The Times-Picayune and some other media outlets on Thursday. Starting at midnight Monday, Tape will shift the responsibility for sexual assault examinations to local hospitals.
Tape takes office on Monday.
The announcement from Tape, who has fended off calls by other elected officials to step down in the wake of a media report that he had faced child sexual assault charges in New Mexico in 2002, caught lawmakers off guard.
Dr. Christopher Tape, St. Tammany Parish Coroner-Elect
“They’re not prepared to do this right off the bat on Monday,” Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, said of area hospitals. “To throw this in their lap without any real notice — it’s insane. It’s crazy.”
The sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) program provides specialized health care to survivors of sexual assaults in St. Tammany, Livingston, St. Helena, Tangipahoa, and Washington parishes. The nurses are specifically trained in evidence collection, and are crucial for the prosecution of sexual assault crimes, lawmakers said.
“Those rural hospitals don’t have access to a SANE nurse without having the team at the St. Tammany Coroner’s Office available to them,” added Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton. “He’s jeopardizing every sexual assault case.”
Hospital not informed
Joan Coffman, the president and CEO of St. Tammany Health System in Covington, said in a statement that her hospital has had a strong relationship with the sexual assault nurses that are employed by the Coroner’s Office, and relied on them for their services. Even though the hospital is now charged with conducting the examinations, she said that Tape had not informed her of his decision before he issued his public announcement.
“We are considering the impacts this decision will have across our entire community and for the victims of sexual assault,” she said. “We will determine the path forward on how we will maintain the standard of care for these victims and absorb this responsibility, as we navigate this transition.”
Rep. Mark Wright, R-Covington, said Tape's announcement continues a recent pattern of mystifying news surrounding the Coroner's Office.
“This is a perfect example of why the guy doesn’t need to be coroner,” Wright said. “We called for his resignation. This provides more evidence that he’s not fit.”
Calls to step down
A chorus of elected officials have called on Tape, who ran unopposed in last year’s election, to not take office after a WWL-Louisiana report that Tape faced charges of child sexual assault in 2002. The television station reported the indictment was later quashed after a New Mexico court found the state violated Tape’s right to a speedy trial by causing a 14-month delay between arresting Tape and formally charging him.
In calling for Tape to step down, some northshore elected officials noted that the Coroner's Office oversees sexual assault examinations and that while he was not convicted, Tape still faced serious charges.
Tape said Friday that he was “not talking to anyone today in the press,” but emailed a statement to The Times-Picayune justifying his decision. He said the local hospitals were “great” and could meet the needs, and that he has “confidence that they will be ready to conduct these exams.”
Tape's statement also took aim at outgoing Coroner Charles Preston, who did not seek reelection last October.
“Dr. Preston has been running a smear campaign against me preventing me from actually working on the transition, otherwise we would have not 'blindsided' anyone,” Tape wrote in an email. “I will be the coroner of St. Tammany, not the rest of the Florida Parishes. Dr. Preston took on this whole thing for money, but it lost money.”
“Christopher Tape was given every possible opportunity to participate in a smooth leadership transition beginning immediately after campaign qualifying ended,” Preston said. “The reality is that Dr Tape’s well-documented and deeply checkered past has informed his rush to judgement on a program everyone in the public health sector believes to be of critical importance.”
“The irony of someone with Tape’s past arbitrarily shuttering a program that supports victims of sexual assault should not be lost on anyone,” Preston added.
Lawmakers and advocates for victims of sexual assault noted that the program is not a burden on taxpayers. The program is grant-funded, and the Coroner’s Office gets reimbursed for every exam they conduct, according to Morgan Lamandre, the CEO of Sexual Trauma Awareness & Response (STAR), a non-profit that provides services to victims of sexual assault.
“He’s a liar,” Lamandre said of Tape. “He sees the public outcry and he’s saying this is about funding. It’s not.”
Tape has maintained that his expertise is in forensic pathology and he will oversee the coroner’s death investigations. The other duties assigned to the Coroner’s Office, he said, would be shifted to experts in other fields.
'It is the right decision'
He emphasized that the decision was not related to the media reports of the sexual assault charges he faced.
“I know that people will think this decision is new, but it is not,” Tape said. “It is the right decision I believe regardless of who the coroner is.”
St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper said he had been in touch with the hospitals to ensure they can meet the communities’ needs. “The thought that sexual assault victims may not have access to specially-trained medical professionals during their darkest time is beyond disturbing and unacceptable,” he said.
Some elected officials suggested Friday that an effort to recall Tape from office was in the works. But no recall can take place until Tape is sworn in, and in order to remove him from office, they will need to collect nearly 40,000 signatures from St. Tammany voters.
“We’ll fix this,” Wright said. “It’s just a question of how long it’s going to take.”