PUEBLO COUNTY, Colo. (KOAA) — Three people, including a leader for a civil rights organization in Pueblo, have submitted a notice of intent to Pueblo County to recall the Coroner, Brian Cotter.
Cotter is under investigation after state inspectors discovered bodies improperly stored at his privately owned business, Davis Mortuary, which he co-owns with his brother.
For David Jiron, picking up the effort seemed like an easy decision.
“Human nature is programmed to think 'oh, I don’t need to get involved,somebody else will do it,'” Jiron said. “I didn’t like that, waiting for somebody to get the ball rolling, so our organization, being a civil rights organization,... thought it was the perfect opportunity to put this into action.”
Jiron called the actions Cotter is accused of “unacceptable”.
Pueblo’s “Hector Garcia Place” honors a civil rights leader who paved the way for Mexican-Americans serving the military. That’s where the American GI Forum building sits in Pueblo, where Jiron is the Vice Commander.
The organization got its start after World War II to combat discrimination against Mexican-American veterans. One of the main issues for its founder was fighting to get a proper burial for a veteran who was refused burial in Texas.
“Although it’s a different type of battle [the recall], it still needs to be treated, and the families need to be treated with dignity and respond and the deceased need to be treated with dignity and respect, so that was our motivation to get involved, to ensure that these people are getting the justice that they deserve as well,” said Jiron.
Jiron, along with community members Paulette Anaya and Annette Garcia, filed the notice of intent this week. The Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder’s Office will now estimate the cost of the recall and then approve petitions to be circulated for the organizers.
Organizers will then have 60 days to collect the number of valid signatures, which Jiron says is about 16,000.
“Regardless of whether he’s guilty or not, the conduct is unacceptable. I mean, we don’t know whether he’s guilty of anything nefarious, we have our opinions, of course, everybody has one, we just need to hold him accountable, so he’s not collecting taxpayer funds while the process is playing out,” Jiron said.
According to Pueblo County, Cotter receives an annual salary of $131,701. Cotter could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
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