2023 New York Laws › CNT - County › Article 17-A - Coroner, Coroner's Physician and Medical Examiner › 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 his or her 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.