Cherokee County Coroner Dr. Jeremy Deation is pleased to announce that Chief Deputy Coroner Paul D. McDonald has recently achieved certification with the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators – ABMDI is one of the highest certifications in the country.
The process of becoming certified with the ABDMI board consists of rigorous field work evaluations followed by a comprehensive, four hour written examination. McDonald began this work two years ago to strengthen his knowledge in the area of death investigation and through a collaborative effort with Mark Hopwood, with the JSU Center for Applied Science, and District Attorney Mike O’Dell, McDonald has been able to achieve this distinguished honor. The fieldwork consisted over 1000 hours of death scene investigations, correctly completing over 300 tasks that were directly supervised by a fieldworker specialized in the area, and demonstrating a positive working relationship with multi agencies involved in a medicolegal death case.
At this time there are only 5 coroners in the state of Alabama with this certification and only 23 individuals total in the state have ever achieved this level of certification, with Cherokee County Coroner Dr. Deaton being certified at this level.
Deaton states, “Chief Deputy Paul McDonald takes the responsibility and honor of speaking for the dead very seriously. This level of certification is one of the nation’s highest achievements, and I commend Paul for his diligent search to further his knowledge in the area of medicolegal death investigation. This certification is not free, and this has been paid out of his personal expenses. At his salary of $200 per month, he has dedicated well over a year’s worth of his county’s salary to further his knowledge in this field. Not only as the Coroner, but as a citizen, I thank him for his commitment to excellence and dedication to the citizens of the county.
Tim Burgess, Judge of Probate and Chairman of the Cherokee County Commission states, “I would like to extend my congratulations to Mr. Paul McDonald for passing the certification examination to be a Diplomate of the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators. I have always found Mr. McDonald to be well organized and professional in his duties as Cherokee County Deputy Coroner. We are very fortunate in our county to have a man of the character and expertise that Mr. McDonald presents. This new achievement speaks to his willingness to be completely committed to his position by increasing his qualifications and raising the standard for service.
Our county should be grateful that we now have 2 individuals who have achieved this certification. Cherokee County Coroner Dr. Jeremy Deaton and Deputy Coroner Mr. Paul McDonald have both received this distinction. It is my understanding that only 23 individuals in the State of Alabama have earned this level of achievement. I really appreciate these two men and their commitment to achieving these high standards to better serve our community.”