Supreme Court Refuses to Reinstate Noguchi

Dr. Thomas Noguchi’s effort to regain his job as Los Angeles County’s chief medical examiner ended Wednesday when the state Supreme Court refused to hear his plea for reinstatement.

In a simple, one-line order, the Supreme Court left intact a Court of Appeal ruling last December that said the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Civil Service Commission had the authority to demote the pathologist who was known as “the coroner to the stars.”

In Los Angeles, Noguchi told a press conference that he would “accept the decision of the Supreme Court of California as the final word” in the matter--and make no further efforts to retrieve the post.

Moreover, Noguchi said he was happy in his present position as a pathologist at County-USC Medical Center, where he is deeply involved in teaching his specialty to residents. And he expressed pride in his recognition by national and international professional associations.

His attorney, Godfrey Isaac, pointed to “positive aspects” of the situation.

Publicity from Noguchi’s long effort to regain the job, he said, had been good for the sales of the book, “Coroner,” an account of Noguchi’s career that Isaacs said has now sold more than 1 million copies.

“I’m a very lucky man,” Noguchi said.

But would he go back to being coroner if he had a chance?

“Oh, yes!” he said, nodding emphatically. “Yes! Yes!”

The supervisors and commission demoted Noguchi in 1982 after he was found to have used his office to promote personal projects, mismanaged the coroner’s office and sensationalized the deaths of actors William Holden and Natalie Wood.

An appeal to the federal courts appeared unlikely because the case involved state issues, and federal courts rarely get involved in such matters.

“This was his last avenue of appeal,” said William Masterson, a private attorney who the county retained to handle Noguchi’s case. Masterson said the court’s action was “clearly warranted by the law and the facts.”

“Life being what it is,” Masterson added, “he presented really nothing to warrant the Supreme Court’s attention.”

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, among the leaders of the effort to oust Noguchi, called the decision “a taxpayers’ victory for competent and cost-effective management.”

“This decision allows the removal of bureaucrats for mismanagement and incompetency,” Antonovich said.

In its December decision upholding the county action, the Court of Appeal cited management audits in 1976 and 1982 and a 1982 civil grand jury study--relied upon by the supervisors--that showed Noguchi’s operation “failed to pass muster.”

“This does not denigrate the reputation of Dr. Noguchi, an outstanding pathologist and forensic scientist, but it does indicate that he lacks the managerial skills and administrative ability to run the coroner’s office,” the appellate court said in the ruling.

Noguchi appealed the lower court decision, arguing that the county exceeded its authority by, for example, pressing a criminal investigation against him in order to influence the outcome of the Civil Service Commission proceeding.

A hearing officer appointed by the Civil Service Commission concluded that Noguchi should have been reinstated. But that decision was overturned by the Civil Service Commission. In the appeal to the high court, Isaac argued that the commission had no right to overrule the hearing officer.

Noguchi, who has spent 25 years in the coroner’s office, works in the morgue as an autopsy physician, making roughly $15,000 more than he did as the $69,341-a-year coroner.

Noguchi, a Japanese-American, has charged that the conservative-dominated Board of Supervisors removed him because he was too independent and outspoken, and he accused the board of discrimination. He also said the board undermined him by failing to give the department enough money.

As the fight over his job progressed, “Coroner” was published, detailing Los Angeles coroner cases such as the deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and John Belushi.