KCBD Investigates: Lubbock Co. Medical Examiner may be highest paid in the state

The KCBD Investigative team requested the salaries of Lubbock county employees. What we found led to an even bigger investigation. Dr. Sridhar Natarajan is the Lubbock County Medical Examiner, and the highest paid county employee.

"In my 25 years of being a prosecutor, I have worked with lots of medical examiners," said Lubbock County District Attorney, Matt Powell. "Dr. Natarajan is by far, by far the best I’ve ever worked with."

Powell did not know just how much money Dr. Natarajan made, until now.

"It’s new to me what his salary was today. You told me for the first time," Powell said.

According to county documents, Dr. Natarajan makes $505,972.48 a year.

"He's worth every penny," Powell said.

Dr. Natarajan accepted the job in 2009, after a brief stint elsewhere.

"Judge Head is the one that contacted him and asked him about coming back and offered him the beginning salary of 450,000," said Lubbock County Commissioner Patti Jones.

It is a salary that has grown by more than $55,000 over the year.

We requested the salaries of medical examiners from some of the largest counties in the state. According to county documents, the Dallas County Medical Examiner makes $386,250. The Harris County chief medical examiner makes $313,000. The Travis County Chief medical examiner makes $278,391.58. The Bexar County medical examiner makes $267,996. All less than Dr. Natarajan's $505,972.48.

We took our investigation even further. According to county documents, the medical examiners in Los Angeles, the Chicago area and even New York make less than the Lubbock County medical examiner.

It is a salary approved every year by Lubbock County Commissioners.

"You can check a lot of other medical examiners offices and they may do quicker work and have more people doing the work, but when you look at the overall picture, there will be litigation that comes along with some of the cases in their office," Jones said.

It is a problem Lubbock is all too familiar with.

"Lubbock County has a history of a sorry medical examiner," Powell said.

"Anybody who has been around here has heard the Ralph Erdmann stories of body parts in the refrigerator next to someone’s sandwich at lunch," Jones said.

"We don’t have those issues anymore because you’ve got a man with great character, great integrity who is extremely good at the work he does," Powell said.

However, there is pending litigation.

The former Lubbock County deputy medical examiner filed a whistle blower lawsuit.

She claims she was wrongfully terminated after reporting illegal activity at the Lubbock County Medical Examiner's Office.

"I think you are going to have some resolution to that pretty soon and nothing about that changes my opinion of Dr. Natarajan," Powell said.