On Sept. 30, the last day possible, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1379, which requires the Riverside County Board of Supervisors to separate the sheriff’s and coroner’s offices by July 1, 2027.

The new law also establishes an independent office of a medical examiner whom the Board of Supervisors will be required to appoint. This official must be a licensed physician and surgeon qualified as a specialist in pathology. 

SB 1379 additionally makes clear requirements for the county to publicly report information regarding in-custody deaths on its website. An initial incident report must be posted on its website within 24 hours of the occurrence of an in-custody death, and a preliminary report is to be posted on the website within 72 hours. The county also would be required to notify the deceased individual’s next of kin regarding the cause of death within 72 hours of the determination of the cause.

State Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, whose District 31 extends from San Jacinto to Corona in Riverside County, introduced SB 1379 in February. The Senate initially passed it in May. The Assembly approved it, with some amendments, by a 59-19 vote in August. The next day, the senate voted to approve it again and it was sent to Gov. Newsom, who waited a month before approving the bill.

“Senate Bill 1379 —which is a targeted solution to fix a long-broken system in my home county of Riverside— has been a long time coming,” Cervantes said in a press release. “The goal of this new law is simple: When an individual dies in custody in a Riverside County jail, their family and the public deserve transparency. We owe the families the truth; we owe our communities accountability; and we owe county taxpayers a system they can trust.”

Locally, state Sen. Kelly Seyarto was one of ten Republicans who opposed SB 1379 both times in the Senate. Local Assemblymembers Greg Wallis and Jeff Gonzalez, were two of 19 Republicans who voted against it.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department also opposed SB 1379.

In an August letter to Cervantes, the City of Palm Desert voiced its opposition to SB 1379. “Our opposition is not to independent determinations of in-custody deaths or to appropriate accountability measures. Our concern is with requiring Riverside County alone to reorganize its governmental structure when existing law already establishes an independent process for in-custody death determinations and provides a local mechanism for reconsidering structural separation,” Palm Desert Mayor Evan Trubee wrote.

The coroner has been part of the Sheriff’s Department since 1999. In recent years – 2023 and 2024 – the Riverside County Supervisors have considered the matter twice. 

Several years ago, the county’s Executive Office concluded that the change would not address the concerns raised by the public and would add to the county’s cost. The Board of Supervisors unanimously concurred and voted against separating the coroner from the Sheriff’s Department.

But now the county must implement this reorganization, which will require planning and time.

“Creating a new County department and transitioning these highly specialized services within approximately nine months is a significant undertaking,” County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen wrote in an email statement. “While the law provides direction regarding the structure of the new office and includes important protections for affected County employees, there are substantial costs that are not covered by this new state mandate.” 

“Our focus today is on implementation,” Wagenen continued. “We will work closely with our employees, labor partners, the Sheriff’s Department, and other stakeholders to ensure continuity of these critical services while creating the new Medical Examiner’s Office.”

California is one of four states that uses a sheriff-coroner system, according to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of 2024, 10 out of 58 counties in the state have separated these functions, according to the Senate Public Safety Committee report. Los Angeles and San Diego counties have separated these functions.

Both the Senate and the Assembly acknowledged that state law leaves the issue of separating or combining the offices of Sheriff and Coroner to the local counties. However, due the significant number – 226 – of in-custody deaths that have occurred in Riverside County since 2012, both houses accepted Sen. Cervantes’ request to separate them.

In 2022, 19 persons died in the custody of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. The family of Richard Matus, Jr. filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county and the Sheriff’s Department in 2023. In August, a federal jury found the county bears partial responsibility for Matus’ death and is responsible for paying his son, daughter and mother roughly $5.4 million in damages.