Sheriff probing Jackson coroner`s employees

Los Angeles: Los Angeles County sheriff`s investigators have begun an inquiry into whether coroner`s employees illegally leaked or sold private information related to the investigation of Michael Jackson`s death.Investigators spoke to the coroner`s office Friday and will handle the inquiry with the district attorney`s office, according to sheriff`s spokesman Steve Whitmore. The department was asked to conduct the probe by county supervisors, he said.

"It`s an inquiry, not an investigation, and it is very preliminary," Whitmore said. "We`ve just made a couple of calls. We want to find out if we need to proceed, if this requires an investigation." On Wednesday the coroner`s office said Jackson`s death certificate was improperly viewed by at least a half-dozen employees who had no role in investigating the cause of his death. Improper views of the certificate, which is stored in a state-supervised computer system, is a violation of internal rules, not any laws, Harvey said. Harvey has said the employees were warned and that no further investigation was needed. Within two weeks of the entertainer`s June 25 death, the certificate had been viewed more than 300 times, according to Harvey. The electronic death registration system can be accessed by anyone with a state-issued password, including employees at coroner`s offices, funeral homes, hospitals and county and state registrar`s offices. Bureau Report