N.Y. County Law § 674: Manner of investigation

§ 674. Manner of investigation. 1. When a coroner or medical examiner

is informed of the occurrence of a death within his jurisdiction as

defined in section six hundred seventy-three of this article, he shall

go at once to the place where the body is and take charge of it. If the

coroner is not a physician duly licensed to practice medicine in this

state, he shall at once notify and designate a coroner's physician to

act with him. If no coroner's physician is available, he shall employ

and designate a physician qualified to make postmortem examinations and

dissections and to testify thereon, and the physician so employed shall

be deemed a coroner's physician for the purpose of the investigation,

and any statute referring to a coroner's physician shall be applicable

to him so far as concerns that investigation. Such coroner's physician

so notified or employed, and designated, shall also go to the place

where the body is, and the coroner and such coroner's physician shall

jointly take charge of the body. Notwithstanding any general, special or

local law, the coroner, or coroner and coroner's physician, or the

medical examiner, shall have authority to the extent required for the

investigation to remove and transport the body upon taking charge of it.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, in a county with a population of less

than two hundred thousand, a coroner who is not a physician duly

licensed to practice medicine in this state may, with respect to deaths

specified in paragraph (e) of subdivision one of section six hundred

seventy-three of this article, take charge of, remove and transport the

body, without first notifying and designating a coroner's physician

when, in the opinion of the coroner, it would be impossible or

impractical to at once notify and designate a coroner's physician to go

to the place where the body is; provided, however, that the coroner

shall notify and designate a coroner's physician to act with him in such

case as soon as practicable, and in any event within twenty-four hours,

after taking charge of the body.

2. The coroner, or the coroner and coroner's physician, or the medical

examiner, shall fully investigate the essential facts concerning the

death, taking the names and addresses of as many witnesses thereto as it

may be practicable to obtain, and before leaving the premises shall

reduce all such facts to writing. He or they shall take possession of

any portable object which, in his or their opinion, may be useful in

establishing the cause or means of death.

3. (a) In the course of the investigation, the coroner or coroner and

coroner's physician, or the medical examiner, shall make or cause to be

made such examinations, including an autopsy, as in his or their opinion

are necessary to establish the cause of death, or to determine the means

or manner of death, or to discover facts, the ascertainment of which is

requested in writing by a district attorney, or a sheriff, or the chief

of a police department of a city or county, or the superintendent of

state police; provided, that if the coroner is not a physician duly

licensed to practice medicine in this state, the determination whether

an autopsy or any subsequent examination or analysis of tissue or organs

is necessary shall be made by the coroner's physician, and any such

autopsy, examination or analysis shall be made by him or at his

direction, and provided further that, if so provided by local law of the

county, written concurrence of the district attorney or the county

health officer or the sheriff, or written concurrence of all or any of

them, as the local law shall specify, shall be required for any

determination by a coroner's physician under this subdivision whether

acting as such physician or as deputy coroner pursuant to subdivision

four-b of section four hundred of this chapter, or for any determination

by the medical examiner, that an autopsy or any subsequent examination

or analysis of tissue or organs is necessary. The authority to make any

examination as provided in this section includes authority to remove,

retain and transport or send, for the purpose of the examination, any

tissue or organs and any portable object.

(b) The coroner or coroner and coroner's physician, or the medical

examiner, also shall make or cause to be made, quantitative tests for

alcohol, and for any trace of a controlled substance, as defined in

section three thousand three hundred six of the public health law, that

the coroner, coroner's physician or medical examiner has reasonable

cause to believe is present, on the body of every operator of a motor

vehicle or a pedestrian sixteen years of age or older who was involved

in and died as a result of a motor vehicle accident; provided, however,

such tests shall not be made pursuant to the provisions of this

paragraph if such coroner, coroner's physician or medical examiner has

reason to believe that the decedent is of a religious faith which is

opposed to such test on religious or moral grounds.

4. A coroner, coroner's physician or medical examiner shall have power

to subpoena and examine witnesses under oath in the same manner as a

magistrate in holding a court of special sessions.

5. Notwithstanding section six hundred seventy of this article or any

other provision of law, the coroner, coroner's physician or medical

examiner shall promptly perform or cause to be performed an autopsy and

to prepare an autopsy report which shall include a toxicological report

and any report of any examination or inquiry with respect to any death

occurring within such coroner's, coroner's physician's or medical

examiner's county to an incarcerated individual of a correctional

facility as defined by subdivision three of section forty of the

correction law, whether or not the death occurred inside such facility.

For the purposes of this subdivision, in addition to anything else

required by law, an autopsy report shall include all photographs of the

body, microscopic slides, and post-mortem x-rays taken by or at the

direction of the person performing the autopsy, and all photographs,

microscopic slides, and post-mortem x-rays reviewed by the person

performing the autopsy in the course of their examination or in the

course of their diagnosis of the cause of death and the means or manner

of death.