ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — Republican Party leaders in St. Tammany Parish joined their Democratic counterparts and most of the area’s elected officials Thursday in calling for coroner Christopher Tape to resign.
The resolution by elected party representatives on the St. Tammany Republican Executive Committee calls for Tape to step down and also encourages voters, regardless of party affiliation, to sign a recall petition by Family First St. Tammany.
Tape has vowed to stay in office, rebuking calls for him to resign from nearly every parish elected official. The voters could take matters into their own hands if they can force a recall election, but the requirements have never been met in a major parish or municipality.
The recall campaign has until late October to collect about 35,000 signatures from registered voters to trigger a recall election. The campaign reports collecting 13,000 verified signatures in 10 weeks so far, putting it behind pace for its six-month deadline.
Campaign co-chair Jean Cefalu says a mass mailer to reach those who haven’t signed will begin next week.
The RPEC resolution Thursday blasts Tape for not disclosing his 2002 indictment on child sexual abuse charges, which voters learned about from our exclusive WWL Louisiana investigation in February.
Courts in New Mexico threw out the charges against Tape for allegedly whipping and rubbing a 7-year-old girl’s bare bottom, ruling that prosecutors violated his right to a speedy trial by taking over a year to indict him.
RPEC, the most powerful Republican group in Northshore politics, also criticizes Tape for eliminating the coroner’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program and for allegedly disclosing confidential information about a death case while serving as a pathologist under his predecessor as coroner, Charles Preston.
The resolution states it was based in part on information provided to the committee in May by Preston, who fired Tape last October and has been in a public spat with him ever since.
Tape has said Preston fired him as retaliation for Tape reporting alleged misconduct by a member of Preston’s staff.
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