Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner



The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner (“DMEC”, formerly the Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner and Department of Coroner) was created in its present form on December 17, 1920, by an ordinance approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, although it has existed in some form since the appointment of the first county coroner in 1850. It is headquartered in Boyle Heights. On September 3, 2020, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the name change for the department, from the Department of Coroner to the Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

On July 9, 2010, the Board of Supervisors approved the appointment of Mark A. Fajardo, the Chief Forensic Pathologist at Riverside County, as the new Medical Examiner-Coroner, at an annual salary of $275,000. He formally replaced Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, who served 2 years as the Coroner, in August 2013.

Dr. Mark Fajardo resigned in March 2016. A news report indicated that "he left because it became common to have up to 50 bodies waiting to be processed and the backlog of bodies was 'nuts'. ... and toxicology tests were taking six months to complete" due to inadequate staffing. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran was re-appointed, but as interim coroner, on April 11, 2016.

Dr. Jonathan R. Lucas was appointed as the Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner on July 10, 2017. Dr. Lucas announced his intent to leave DMEC in September 2022. On November 4, 2022, Dr. Odey C. Ukpo, Medical Director of the Department, was sworn in as Interim Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner. Dr. Ukpo is the first African American to serve as Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner since the office was established in 1850. Dr. Ukpo joined the Department in 2014 and served as a Senior Deputy Medical Examiner before being named Medical Director in June 2022. On March 7, 2023, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appointed Ukpo as Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner.

List of Medical Examiners

 * Alpheus P. Hodges (coroner): June 24, 1850 – 1851
 * James Brown Winston (coroner): 1857
 * Horace G. Cates (coroner): 1892 – 1896
 * Calvin Hartwell (coroner): 1908 – 1920
 * Theodore Curphey: March 19, 1957 – October 25, 1967
 * Thomas Noguchi: October 26, 1967 – April 27, 1982
 * Ronald Kornblum: April 27, 1982 – July 1, 1990
 * J. Lawrence Cogan (acting): July 2, 1990 – February 18, 1992
 * Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran: February 18, 1992 – March 31, 2013
 * Mark A. Fajardo: August 12, 2013 – April 11, 2016
 * Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran (interim): April 11, 2016 – January 18, 2017
 * Christopher Rogers (acting): January 19, 2017 – July 9, 2017
 * Jonathan R. Lucas: July 10, 2017 – November 4, 2022
 * Odey C. Ukpo: November 4, 2022 – present