St. Tammany Parish residents flock to sign recall petition against coroner

ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. ( WGNO ) — Along East Gibson Street in downtown Covington, written in chalk, is a message for people who want a new coroner in St. Tammany Parish.

“Our only recourse is the recall and that’s what we plan to do,” said St. Tammany Parish resident Perry Williams.

The petition is the result of two factors. When Dr. Christopher Tape took office earlier this year, he announced he was ending the sexual assault nurse examiner program .

The discovery of child sexual assault charges from 2001 in New Mexico also played a major factor. Those charges were eventually dismissed and have caused outrage in the community.

“We need adults, responsible adults in place that can make decisions that are actually protective of our children. Not going to harm them further,” said St. Tammany Parish resident Dr. Matthew Morvant.

Others who have signed the petition say that to be a coroner, the community has to trust you.

“Even if you didn’t get convicted, if it was something that brevity that you know was such a controversial topic as some of the charges he was facing, you absolutely need to be truthful to your voters,” said St. Tammany Parish resident Cody Ludwig.

“For any office, much less the coroner’s office, which has some very critical roles for our community. Whether it’s sexual assault victims or mental health problems, we need someone we can trust,” said Williams.

Organizers need about 38,000 valid signatures to recall Tape.
Many say they are confident residents will come out in droves to sign the petition.

“We get different people in every day. Just this morning we had almost 20 signatures, and that’s just in a couple of hours,” said Morvant.

“I mean it’s going to be a lot of work, but we can do it. We have over 100 volunteers, and that number is growing every day,” said Williams.

If they get enough valid signatures by mid-June, it will force a special election.

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