 | |
| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | June 24, 1850 |
| Preceding department |
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| Jurisdiction | Los Angeles County, California |
| Headquarters | Boyle Heights, Los Angeles,California |
| Department executive |
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| Website | me |
TheLos Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner is the medical examiner's office of the government of theCounty of Los Angeles, California. It is located at theBoyle Heights neighborhood inLos Angeles.
Established in its current form on December 17, 1920, by an ordinance approved by theLos Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the office has a history dating back to the appointment of the first county coroner in 1850.[1] The LACDME was previously known as both the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner and the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner.
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner recognized the following individuals as its leaders in the agency's history.[2][1]
| No. | Name | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles County Coroner (1850–1957) | |||
| 1 | Alpheus P. Hodges, M.D. | 1850 | 1851 |
| 2 | Rafael (Ralph) C. Guirado | 1852 | |
| 3 | Joseph Stillman Mallard | 1853 | |
| 4 | Thomas A. Mayes | 1854 | 1855 |
| 5 | Q. A. Sneed | 1856 | |
| 6 | James Brown Winston, M.D. | 1857 | |
| 7 | A. Cook | 1858 | |
| 8 | Henry A. Miles | 1859 | |
| 9 | H. P. Swain | 1860 | 1861 |
| 10 | J. S. Griffin, M.D. | 1862 | 1865 |
| 11 | J. L. Smith | 1866 | 1867 |
| 12 | Vincent Gelcich, M.D. | 1868 | 1869 |
| 13 | Joseph Kurtz, M.D. | 1870 | 1873 |
| 14 | N. P. Richardson | 1874 | 1875 |
| 15 | Joseph Kurtz, M.D. | 1876 | 1877 |
| 16 | J. Hannon | 1878 | 1879 |
| 17 | Louis Hubert Nadeau, M.D. | 1879 | 1884 |
| 18 | Andrew McFarland, M.D. | 1885 | 1886 |
| 19 | J. M. Meredith | 1887 | 1890 |
| 20 | William Amasa Weldon, M.D. | 1891 | 1893 |
| 21 | Horace Getchell Cates, M.D. | 1893 | 1895 |
| 22 | George Walter Campbell, M.D. | 1895 | 1899 |
| 23 | L. T. Holland, M.D. | 1899 | 1902 |
| 24 | John Henry Trout, M.D. | 1902 | 1907 |
| 25 | Roy Stanley Lanterman, M.D. | 1907 | 1908 |
| 26 | Calvin Hartwell | 1908 | 1920 |
| 27 | F. T. Williams | 1920 | 1921 |
| 28 | Frank Albert Nance | 1921 | 1945 |
| 29 | Ben Harlan Brown | 1945 | 1953 |
| 30 | E. A. Winstanley | 1953 | 1957 |
| Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner | |||
| 1 | Theodore Joslyn Curphey, M.D. | 1957 | 1966 |
| 2 | Thomas T. Noguchi, M.D. | 1966 | 1983 |
| 3 | Ronald Kornblum, M.D. | 1983 | 1990 |
| acting | J. Lawrence Cogan, M.D. | 1990 | 1992 |
| 4 | Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, M.D. | 1992 | 2013 |
| 5 | Mark A. Fajardo, M.D. | 2013 | 2016 |
| acting | Christopher Rogers, M.D. | 2017 | |
| 6 | Jonathan R. Lucas, M.D. | 2017 | 2022 |
| interim | Odey C. Ukpo, M.D., M.S. | 2022 | 2023 |
| 7 | 2023 | present | |
| Director (office abolished) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ilona Lewis | 1990 | 1993 |
| 2 | Anthony T. Hernandez | 1993 | 2012 |
| interim | Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, M.D. | 2012 | 2013 |
On July 9, 2010, the Board of Supervisors approved the appointment of Mark A. Fajardo, the Chief Forensic Pathologist atRiverside County, as the Medical Examiner-Coroner, at an annual salary of $275,000.[3] He formally replacedLakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, who served 2 years as the Coroner, in August 2013.[4]
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.[5] Fajardo's predecessor, Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, was re-appointed on an interim basis on April 11, 2016.[citation needed]
Jonathan R. Lucas was appointed as the Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner on July 10, 2017. Lucas announced his intent to leave DMEC in September 2022.[citation needed]
On November 4, 2022, Odey C. Ukpo, Medical Director of the Department, was sworn in as Interim Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner. Ukpo is the first African American to serve as Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner since the office was established in 1850. Ukpo joined the Department in 2014 and served as a Senior Deputy Medical Examiner before being named Medical Director in June 2022.[6][7] On March 7, 2023, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appointed Odey C. Ukpo as Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner.[8]
The state legislature then ordered elections to be held in the counties on April 1, 1850, for the purpose of electing county officials… The Court of Sessions held its first meeting on June 24, 1850, attended by most of the newly elected County officials. This marked the official beginning of county government in Los Angeles.
