Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner

List of chief medical examiners

The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner recognized the following individuals as its leaders in the agency's history.

Former administrative roles

Recent chief medical examiners

Mark A. Fajardo

On July 9, 2010, the Board of Supervisors approved the appointment of Mark A. Fajardo, the Chief Forensic Pathologist at Riverside County, as the 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.

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. Fajardo's predecessor, Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, was re-appointed on an interim basis on April 11, 2016.

Jonathan R. Lucas

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.

Odey C. Ukpo

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. On March 7, 2023, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appointed Odey C. Ukpo as Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner.

References

References

1. (December 1959). "Courthouses of Los Angeles County". University of California Press.
2. "Department History – Medical Examiner". Los Angeles County.
3. (9 July 2013). "Appointment, Salary, and Relocation Reimbursement for Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner". County of Los Angeles.
4. Villacorte, Christina. (September 4, 2013). "L.A.'s first new coroner in decades faces tough tasks". Los Angeles Daily News.
5. . (December 30, 2016). ["2016 in Review: 16 LA stories that mattered this year - Coroner Resigns"](http://www.dailynews.com/media/20161230/2016-in-review-16-la-stories-that-mattered-this-year).
6. (November 6, 2022). "LA County appoints Ukpo as interim coroner". Los Angeles Daily News.
7. (4 November 2022). "Dr. Odey C. Ukpo appointed by Board of Supervisors as Interim Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner". County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner-Coroner.
8. "Dr. Odey C. Ukpo Appointed as Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner. On June 29, 2023, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors officially approved a name change for the department to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner, with the newly renamed department addressing in a statement that the removal of "coroner" was needed to reinforce the department's role as an unbiased and independent investigative agency, unattached to any law enforcement agency.". County of Los Angeles.