St. Tammany Parish Coroner scandal, highlights importance to research candidates

St. Tammany Parish leaders say they plan to file for a recall campaign to remove Coroner Dr. Christopher Tape. Tape was accused but never tried on a technicality for child sexual abuse in 2002 in New Mexico. Dillard University Political Science Professor Dr. Robert Collins said if Tape had had a challenger, opposition research…

“Probably would have found this out about his background and would have brought this out sooner, and then the voters could have just made a judgement-call on it,” said Collins.

Collins said this case highlights the importance of researching a candidate before you cast your ballot.

“He basically, just walked into the office unopposed because he had worked there, he’d worked for the previous coroner. And so, because of that he wasn’t really vetted by the democratic process, by competitive election,” said Collins.

Tape was reportedly fired from his previous job at the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office last October by his predecessor Dr. Charles Preston who retired.

Collins said if it wasn’t for a TV reporter’s investigative research, voters and other elected officials might never have known about Tape’s past.

“But if we’d had a normal campaign season one of his opponents would have found it out, probably just doing a basic Google search, and could have brought that to the public,” said Collins.

Because Tape was never tried on child sexual abuse charges, that were tossed claiming his constitutional right to a speedy trial was compromised, Collins said the Louisiana State Medical Board had no reason to bar him from obtaining a license.