*After an elected coroner in Pueblo was caught hiding two dozen decomposing bodies at his own mortuary, Colorado passed its first financial disclosure law for coroners with deathcare businesses. The governor signed it. It takes effect in August. It does not prohibit the arrangement that caused the problem.*
On May 4, 2026, Governor Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 26-105. The official title is "County Executive Officer Disclosures." The law requires every Colorado county coroner to disclose any financial interest they hold in a mortuary, funeral home, crematory, embalming service, or other deathcare business — and to post that disclosure on the coroner's government website. It prohibits a coroner who has made such a disclosure from participating in any official action that would directly and specifically affect that business.
The law does not prohibit a coroner from owning a deathcare business. It does not prohibit a candidate for coroner from owning one. The same person can still investigate deaths for the county and sell funeral services to families in the same county. They just have to say so on a website.
The bill's prime sponsor was Senator Nick Hinrichsen, a Democrat representing Senate District 3, which covers Pueblo County. Hinrichsen is the Senate Majority Whip. The House prime sponsors were Representatives Matthew Martinez and Tisha Mauro, who also represent Pueblo. The Pueblo delegation carried the bill because the scandal that prompted it happened in their district.
What prompted the law
By the Numbers
Davis Mortuary in Pueblo was owned and operated by Brian Cotter. Cotter was also the elected coroner of Pueblo County. As coroner, he was the public official responsible for determining the cause and manner of death for people who died suddenly or under unclear circumstances in the county. As a funeral home owner, he sold burial and cremation services to families in the same county.
On August 26, 2025, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation announced that inspectors had found 24 decomposing bodies at Davis Mortuary. Some had been there for more than a decade. Bodies were stored behind a hidden door in the building. The discovery came during the first funeral home inspection ever conducted under Colorado's new licensing regime — a regime created in response to an earlier scandal.
In 2023, authorities found roughly 190 decomposing bodies at Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado. Owners Jon and Carie Hallford had stored bodies in a building with no refrigeration, handed families concrete dust instead of cremated remains, and continued taking payment from new families. In April 2026, Carie Hallford was sentenced to 30 years in state prison. Jon Hallford received a 40-year state sentence. Both received additional federal sentences. The Return to Nature case forced Colorado to pass its first funeral director licensing law in 2024, after decades as the only state with no such requirement.
Davis Mortuary was the first business inspected under that new law. What inspectors found proved that the 2024 reforms had addressed licensing but not the underlying conflict. Brian Cotter had been elected coroner — the county's chief death investigator — while simultaneously operating a private funeral home serving the same population. Nothing in Colorado law had stopped him. Nothing in the 2024 licensing law stopped the next person from doing the same thing.
On June 25, 2026, Brian Cotter and his brother were arrested and charged with 152 felonies each, 125 of them for abuse of a corpse, according to the Pueblo Chieftain and the Colorado Sun.
What the law actually does
The full text of Senate Bill 26-105, as enacted and signed by the governor on May 4, 2026, contains two main provisions affecting county coroners.
Disclosure. A county coroner must disclose any financial interest they hold in businesses regulated by their office — including a mortuary, funeral home, crematory, embalming service, or other deathcare business — on the coroner's government website. The disclosure is public.
Recusal. A coroner who has disclosed a financial interest shall not participate in an official action that would directly and specifically affect the business in which they hold that interest.
The bill summary on the Colorado General Assembly website states the limitation plainly: "The act does not prohibit a coroner or candidate for coroner from operating a death-care business."
The law also changes the population threshold for coroner certification requirements. Under prior law, an individual had to be a certified death investigator or forensic pathologist to serve as coroner in any county with a population greater than 150,000. SB26-105 raises that threshold to 300,000. The practical effect: coroners in mid-sized Colorado counties — including Pueblo County, whose population is approximately 169,000 — are no longer required to hold professional death investigation certification. The certification change was added through amendments during the legislative process.
How the bill moved through the legislature
SB26-105 was introduced in the Senate on February 11, 2026, and assigned to the Senate Committee on Local Government and Housing. The committee heard it on March 12, 2026, adopting amendments and referring it to the consent calendar with an 11-0 committee vote. The full Senate passed it on second reading with committee amendments on March 17, and on third reading without amendments on March 18.
The bill then moved to the House, where it was assigned to the House Committee on Transportation, Housing and Local Government. The committee heard it on March 31, 2026. Three amendments passed without objection. A fourth amendment, L.005, failed on a vote of 5-6. The committee referred the amended bill to the House Committee of the Whole.
The House passed the bill on second reading with committee and floor amendments on April 14. It passed on third reading without amendments on April 16. The Senate concurred with the House amendments and repassed the bill on April 17. The Speaker and Senate President signed it on April 22. It was sent to the governor on April 23, and Governor Polis signed it on May 4.
The act takes effect on August 12, 2026, the default effective date for Colorado bills enacted without a safety clause. It was assigned Chapter 83 in the session laws.
The national pattern
The conflict that SB26-105 addresses is not unique to Colorado or to Pueblo. Across the United States, elected coroners and funeral home operators have overlapping jurisdictions in ways that create structural conflicts of interest. In many states, the same person can serve as the public official who investigates deaths and the private business owner who profits from disposing of the bodies.
In Mohave County, Arizona, a single official ran the county medical examiner's office while owning several funeral homes in the same service area, prompting coverage about the conflicts that arise when one person controls both death investigation and death care. The arrangement is legal under Arizona law.
In Berks County, Pennsylvania, a funeral director campaigned for the county coroner's post while continuing to operate a funeral home, raising the same question Colorado faced: whether the public official responsible for determining cause of death can also sell the services that follow that determination.
In September 2025, after the Davis Mortuary discovery but before SB26-105 passed, funeral directors in Pueblo asked the Board of County Commissioners to reject coroner candidates with funeral industry ties. The Pueblo Chieftain reported on their appeal. The county did not adopt a prohibition. State legislators then took up the issue.
The structural problem is simple. A coroner who owns a funeral home has a financial incentive to direct bodies — and the families who arrive with them — toward their own business. A coroner who investigates a death can also influence the certification, documentation, and referral pathways that determine which funeral home gets the case. Even without overt misconduct, the dual role creates an appearance of impropriety that undermines public confidence in both the coroner's office and the funeral home.
What the law changes and what it does not
What it changes. Starting August 12, 2026, Colorado coroners must publicly disclose financial interests in deathcare businesses on a government website. They must recuse themselves from official actions that would directly affect those businesses. The disclosure creates a public record that did not exist before. Citizens, journalists, and competitors can see who holds both roles.
What it does not change. A coroner can still own a funeral home. A coroner can still be elected while operating one. The financial disclosure requirement does not separate the two roles. The recusal requirement applies only to official actions that "directly and specifically" affect the coroner's business — a standard that leaves broad room for indirect influence. A coroner who recuses from a zoning decision affecting their own funeral home still controls death investigation decisions that generate referrals to the funeral home down the hall.
The 2024 licensing law addressed who is qualified to operate a funeral home in Colorado. SB26-105 addresses who knows about it. Neither law addresses whether one person should hold both roles at the same time.
The trajectory from Penrose to Pueblo to the statute book
What This Means for You
The throughline runs from Return to Nature in Penrose, where roughly 190 bodies were found decomposing in 2023, to Davis Mortuary in Pueblo, where 24 more were found in 2025. The first case produced a licensing law. The second produced a disclosure law. The question that neither law answers is whether the person who investigates a death should be allowed to sell the funeral that follows it.
Colorado's legislature debated that question. Senator Hinrichsen, Representative Martinez, and Representative Mauro introduced a bill that responded to a specific scandal in their district. The bill moved through both chambers with amendments. The governor signed it. It takes effect in August.
The same arrangement that put Brian Cotter in a position to store two dozen decomposing bodies at his own funeral home while serving as the county's elected coroner will still be legal when the law takes effect. It will just be disclosed on a website.
*Sources: Colorado General Assembly, SB26-105 bill page, leg.colorado.gov, including bill summary, full text, bill history, sponsors, and session law Chapter 83 (accessed July 17, 2026); The Colorado Sun, "Colorado governor signs 101 bills as legislative session ends," May 2026, including summary of Senate Bill 105; Pueblo Chieftain, "Pueblo-sponsored bill requires coroners to disclose financial ties," April 3, 2026; KOAA News 5, "Senate Bill amendments could loosen the requirement to become a coroner in Pueblo County," April 8, 2026; FOX21 News Colorado, "Pueblo coroner calling for stronger laws," June 5, 2026; Pueblo Chieftain, "Pueblo funeral directors ask BOCC to pass on coroner candidates with industry ties," September 12, 2025; 9News/KUSA, "Decomposing bodies found during inspection of mortuary connected to Pueblo County coroner," August 26, 2025; Associated Press, coverage of Davis Mortuary arrests and charges, June 25-26, 2026; Colorado General Assembly legislator page for Senator Nick Hinrichsen, District 3, Pueblo County; Obitley, "The First Inspection: Colorado's New Funeral Law Caught a Coroner Hiding Two Dozen Bodies," June 28, 2026.*
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