DALY CITY -- San Mateo County supervisors condemned a law Tuesday that allowed a coroner to keep the heart of a dead man without notifying his family.

Less than a month after burying Nicholas Picon, 23, of Daly City, his mother, Selina Picon, learned that the San Mateo County coroner's office still had his heart after conducting an autopsy.

An autopsy determined Picon died last fall from an undetected heart defect, but Coroner Robert Foucrault said he has retained 105 organs since 2004, including Picon's heart, for further testing.

Autopsy reports available to next-of-kin indicate organs that have been kept, but the records have to be requested, he said.

"We don't hide anything from them," Foucrault said. "There are people who want to know and people who don't want to know. It's a delicate balance."

The case of the missing heart follows a county investigation that found the office was a hostile workplace with chronic use of sexual innuendoes and allegations that Foucrault dropped his trousers and "mooned" two male colleagues. No disciplinary action was taken, and Foucrault's lawyer called the release of findings a vendetta against the coroner.

After learning about the Picon case, the Board of Supervisors called for the law to be changed to require authorities to notify relatives if they planned to keep body parts.

Under current California law, coroners are allowed to keep parts "for scientific investigation and training." The law requires coroners have consent of the deceased or next-of-kin to release the body parts to law enforcement agencies, medical researchers or hospitals.

Medical ethicists say laws allowing coroners to keep organs are intended to prevent delays in investigating deaths.

"My son was a taxpayer. An American. Are you telling me he didn't have rights when he died? I want this exposed," Selina Picon said

Picon's parents now keep his heart in a polished wooden box in their bedroom.