Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran (born March 17, 1949; ta, லட்சுமணன் சத்யவாகீஸ்வரன்) is the former

Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner (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 Boar ...

. In 2016, he again took over this position on an interim basis until January 18, 2017.

Education and early career

Sathyavagiswaran graduated from

Loyola College, Chennai Loyola College is a private Catholic higher education institution run by the Society of Jesus in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded in 1925 by the French Jesuit priest, Francis Bertram, along with other European Jesuits. It is an auto ...

in 1965 and

Stanley Medical College Stanley Medical College (SMC) is a government medical college with hospitals located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Though the original hospital is more than 200 years old, the medical college was formally established on 2 July 1938. The medic ...

in 1971. In 1972 he immigrated to the United States, where he interned at the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn. From 1972 to 1973 he trained in

anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

and clinical pathology at St. Luke's Hospital of

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. From 1973 to 1977 he was the senior

resident Resident may refer to: People and functions * Resident minister, a representative of a government in a foreign country * Resident (medicine), a stage of postgraduate medical training * Resident (pharmacy), a stage of postgraduate pharmaceuti ...

in medicine at Brooklyn Cumberland Hospital.

Los Angeles County Coroner

In 1977 he joined the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. He worked his way up to the position of chief of forensic medicine. In 1990 he was passed over in favor of J. Lawrence Cogan for the position of Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner. Sathyavagiswaran was appointed Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner in 1992. The

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States. History On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Sessions as their first ...

' first selection, Joshua Perper of

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Allegheny County () is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's second-most populous county, following Philadelphia Co ...

, declined the job due to Los Angeles' high housing costs. The Board's second choice, Yong-Myun Rho of

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long I ...

, thrice failed the state medical exam. Sathyavagiswaran was then selected over Cogan after the Board of Supervisors received a letter signed by several deputy medical examiners requesting the County to consider the in-house candidates rather than outsiders. He was the medical examiner during the

O. J. Simpson murder case ''The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson'' was a criminal trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court starting in 1994, in which O. J. Simpson, a former National Football League (NFL) player, broadcaster and actor, was ...

and testified during the criminal and civil trials. Sathyavagiswaran also testified in the trials of Dean Carter and

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

, as well as in the wrongful death suit brought against the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

by the family of

Emil Mătăsăreanu The North Hollywood shootout was a confrontation between two heavily armed and armored bank robbers, Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu, and members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in the North Hollywood district of Los Ang ...

. Sathyavagiswaran supervised the autopsy on the body of

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

on 26 June 2009. On August 21, 2012, Sathyavagiswaran amended

Natalie Wood Natalie Wood ( Zacharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles. Wood started acting at age four and was given a co-starring r ...

's death certificate and changed the cause of death from accidental drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors". Following the unexpected resignation of Sathyavagiswaran′s successor Mark Fajardo in March 2016, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to appoint Sathyavagiswaran as interim coroner even though he retired three years earlier.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sathyavagiswaran, Lakshmanan Indian emigrants to the United States Columbia University people American coroners People from Los Angeles American Hindus Living people American people of Indian descent in health professions Loyola College, Chennai alumni 1949 births