Former Lake County Coroner Found Guilty of Second-Degree Official Misconduct

Image courtesy of Summit County Sheriffs Office

The former Lake County coroner, who resigned from office earlier this year, was found guilty of second-degree official misconduct, a petty offense. 

45-year-old Shannon Kent was convicted by a jury and sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation for sending his wife, Staci, to several death scenes in 2019, although she was not a deputy coroner at the time. He was acquitted of second charge of perjury.   

While this case is closed, the former coroner is facing additional charges, including abuse of a corpse and official misconduct, stemming from mortuary services he provided at one of his funeral homes and will be back in Lake County Court later this month.

Staci will also appear in Lake County Court this month on a motions hearing for charges of corpse abuse, cremation unlawful acts, first-degree perjury and forgery of a public record.   

The Kents were arrested February 18 in Leadville on suspicion of tampering with a deceased human body after authorities found remains in a coffin at their Silverthorne funeral home. The both are facing a jury trial in November in Summit County for those charges.    

Dan R
Latest posts by Dan R (see all)