There shall be a Medical Examiner who shall be appointed by the County Executive, subject to confirmation by the County Legislature. The Medical Examiner shall serve for a term of four years and be a physician duly licensed to practice in the State of New York. He or she shall be qualified to perform an autopsy and dissect dead bodies of human beings and have adequate knowledge of forensic medicine.
The Medical Examiner shall have all the powers and duties and shall be subject to all the obligations and liabilities heretofore or hereafter lawfully granted or imposed by the Charter, this code, local law, ordinance or resolution of the County Legislature or any applicable provision of any act of the State Legislature not inconsistent with the Charter and this code. The Medical Examiner shall also perform such other related functions as the County Legislature or the County Executive may designate in order to implement and accomplish the policies and responsibilities the County Legislature has prescribed. Such powers, duties, obligations and liabilities shall include but shall not be limited to any power, duty, obligation or liability granted or imposed upon a Medical Examiner by the County Law or any other applicable law not inconsistent with the Charter or this code. The Medical Examiner shall investigate deaths when such investigation is required pursuant to § 5-108 of this article and applicable state law.
[1]
Editor's Note: See § C7.04 of the Charter.
The Medical Examiner shall be the keeper of the morgue, if any, and appoint and have charge of the morgue staff.
A. 
The Medical Examiner, within the appropriations provided therefor, shall appoint such officers, assistants and/or employees in his or her Department, including such actual deputy positions as may be authorized and budgeted, as shall be authorized by the County Legislature. All Deputy Medical Examiners shall serve at the pleasure of the Medical Examiner, subject to all applicable provisions of New York State law.
B. 
Any such Deputy Medical Examiner or other person authorized by the Medical Examiner to perform autopsies shall be a physician duly licensed to practice in the State of New York and qualified to perform an autopsy and dissect dead bodies of human beings.
C. 
The Medical Examiner shall designate and deputize a deputy or deputies to whom shall be delegated all the powers and duties of the Medical Examiner and the authority to act generally for and in place of said Medical Examiner.
D. 
The designation or designations shall be in writing and shall designate the relative rank of the deputies, including the order of temporary succession to the duties of the Medical Examiner during absence, disability or otherwise and also may delegate among them such powers and duties as he or she may determine. The designations and delegations shall be in writing and filed in the Department of Records, and copies thereof shall be filed with the Clerk to the County Legislature and with the County Executive.
The Medical Examiner shall investigate deaths when such investigation is required pursuant to § 5-108 of this article.
A Medical Examiner has the jurisdiction and authority to investigate the death of every person dying within his or her County or whose body is found within the County, which is or appears to be:
A. 
A violent death, whether by criminal violence, suicide or casualty.
B. 
A death caused by unlawful act or criminal neglect.
C. 
A death occurring in a suspicious, unusual or unexplained manner.
D. 
A death while unattended by a physician, so far as can be discovered, or where no physician able to certify the cause of death, as provided in the Public Health Law and in form as prescribed by the Commissioner of Health, can be found.
E. 
A death of a person confined in a public institution other than a hospital, infirmary or nursing home.
Whenever in the County any person shall die from criminal violence or criminal neglect or by suicide or in any suspicious and unusual manner, any officer or person having knowledge of such a death shall immediately notify the office of the Medical Examiner, and immediately upon receipt of such notification, the Medical Examiner or a Deputy Medical Examiner shall go to the dead body and take charge of the same. Such Examiner shall fully investigate the facts concerning the circumstances of the death.
If, in the opinion of such Medical Examiner, an autopsy is necessary, the same shall be performed by the Medical Examiner, a Deputy Medical Examiner or other person authorized by the Medical Examiner to perform autopsies. A detailed description of the findings, written during the process of such autopsy, and the conclusions drawn therefrom shall be filed in the office of the Medical Examiner. If, when the duties of the Medical Examiner with regard to the body are completed, the body remains unclaimed, the Medical Examiner shall have the authority to make an order for the disposition thereof as a County charge.
The Medical Examiner shall keep full and complete records, properly indexed, stating the name, if known, of every person whose body is examined, the place where the body was found and the date of death and shall attach thereto the original report of the Medical Examiner and detailed findings of the autopsy, if any. The Medical Examiner shall deliver to the District Attorney copies of all records relating to every such death within 30 days after the occurrence of such death.
On or before March 1 of each year, the Medical Examiner shall make an annual report for the immediately preceding calendar year, covering generally the work of his or her office. He or she shall make such other reports at such times as may be required by the County Legislature, County Executive or any other applicable law. Copies of all reports shall be filed with the Clerk to the County Legislature and the County Executive.
A. 
Money and other property found upon the body of the deceased, not required for the purposes of the investigation, shall be delivered to the Commissioner of Finance. Unless claimed in the meantime by the legal representatives of the deceased, articles held for the purposes of the investigation, except such writing of the deceased as may be relevant to the diagnosis of means or manner of death, shall be delivered to the Commissioner of Finance at the conclusion of the investigation.
B. 
Upon the delivery of money to the Commissioner of Finance, he or she must place it to the credit of the County. If other property is delivered to him or her, he or she must, within one year, sell it at public auction upon reasonable public notice and must, in like manner, place the proceeds to the credit of the County.
C. 
If the money in the treasury is demanded within six years by the legal representative of the deceased, the Commissioner of Finance must pay it to them, after deducting the amount of expenses incurred in connection therewith, or it may be so paid at any time thereafter upon the order of the County Legislature; provided, however, that such money may be so paid at any time upon the written order of the Surrogate of the County.
D. 
Before auditing and allowing the account of the Medical Examiner, the County Legislature must require from him or her a statement, in writing, of any money or other property found upon persons whose deaths he or she has investigated, verified by his or her oath to the effect that the statement is true and that the money or property mentioned in it has been delivered to the legal representatives of the deceased or to the Commissioner of Finance.