No. 2 Man Selected as County Coroner : Medicine: After searching for more than a year, supervisors select Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran for the post.

Los Angeles County’s long and troubled search for a new chief medical examiner came to an end Tuesday with the appointment of the No. 2 man in the coroner’s office for the top job.

Meeting behind closed doors, the Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 0 to appoint Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran to the $150,000-a-year post after a nationwide search that lasted more than a year. Sathyavagiswaran is the office’s chief of forensic medicine.

Before the appointment is official, the supervisors must hold a formal public vote.

Sathyavagiswaran won the job even though he was rejected by supervisors last year for appointment as acting coroner.

Sathyavagiswaran, a native of India, is usually called by his first name, pronounced Lock-shmon--an. “Even he has never pronounced his last name for me,” said Richard B. Dixon, the county’s chief administrative officer.

Sathyavagiswaran was the board’s third choice for the job. Joshua Perper, the coroner of Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County, turned down the post last March after his wife complained that Los Angeles’ housing costs were too high.

Supervisors then selected Dr. Yong-Myun Rho, a former deputy New York City medical examiner. He lost the job last month after flunking the California medical licensing test three times.

Last week, Perper expressed renewed interest in the job, Board Chairman Deane Dana said Tuesday. But Perper would have had to pass the state medical licensing exam, and the supervisors said they were weary of the process, Dana said.

“I think we have all had enough,” said Dana.

Dixon said the fact that Sathyavagiswaran was passed over for appointment as acting chief medical examiner last year is not a reflection on his qualifications.

Calling Sathyavagiswaran “a top-notch forensic pathologist,” Dixon said the new coroner is certified in several specialties. “In the medical profession, you are supposed to be hot if certified in one,” he said.

The office was once run by Thomas T. Noguchi, the flamboyant self-styled “coroner to the stars” who was accused of poor management and lost the job in 1982. Ronald Kornblum resigned as coroner in July, 1990, after a critical audit that showed poor management, failure to maintain sanitary standards and inadequate protection of personal property.

A 14-year veteran of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, Sathyavagiswaran, 43, holds his medical degree from the University of Madras in India and states in his resume that he has personally performed about 2,000 autopsies.

A majority of the supervisors last month were leaning toward the appointment of Los Angeles County’s acting chief medical examiner, J. Lawrence Cogan.

But the supervisors last week received a letter signed by several deputy medical examiners recommending Sathyavagiswaran for consideration. The letter offered no criticisms of Cogan but praised Sathyavagiswaran’s abilities.

“Dr. Lakshmanan has proven to be a hands-on manager, appearing regularly on the service floor in spite of his busy schedule,” said the letter.

Because of problems in the office, the supervisors in 1990 split up its management, vesting medical decisions with the chief medical examiner and administrative matters with a manager. Dana said that he did not believe Cogan was as committed as Sathyavagiswaran to sharing responsibility for running the office.

Dixon said that supervisors believed Cogan’s strengths lay in the “medical area, but he might be more comfortable without the pressures of administrative responsibilities.”

Referring to Sathyavagiswaran, Dana said, “He has the respect of the doctors in the community and the funeral directors. He seems to pull the office together.”

Sathyavagiswaran said he would not comment on his selection until the board votes in public next Tuesday.

Dixon said that Sathyavagiswaran has told supervisors that he is “enthusiastic” about the new job and “very supportive about the way the board has chosen to organize the department.”

“I think we should see a continuation of improvement over there,” Dixon said. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office, second busiest in the nation, last year investigated 18,068 suspicious or violent deaths, including 2,401 possible homicides. The office, which conducted 6,256 autopsies last year, is critical to law enforcement in helping prove that crimes have been committed.