7 Enter Pleas in Body Part Scheme
Oct 18, 12:37 PM (ET)
By TOM HAYS
NEW YORK (AP) - Seven funeral home directors linked to a scheme to plunder corpses for transplantable body parts have secretly pleaded guilty to unspecified charges, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The unidentified directors have all agreed to cooperate in a probe of what investigators have said was an enterprise to harvest bone and tissue and sell it to biomedical supply companies, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said.
The seven entered their pleas in closed courtrooms and their names were withheld, but defense attorneys said that among those cooperating was the director of a funeral home that took parts from the body of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, who died in 2004.
Hynes also announced Wednesday that a grand jury has voted to bring additional charges in the case. A new indictment adds allegations involving funeral homes in Manhattan, the Bronx and Rochester, N.Y.
"It is clear that many more funeral home directors were involved in this enterprise," Hynes said.
Four original defendants in the case were to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.
Prosecutors allege Michael Mastromarino, a former oral surgeon, and three other men secretly removed skin, bone and other parts from hundreds of bodies from funeral homes, without the permission of families. He allegedly made millions of dollars by selling the stolen tissue to biomedical companies that supply material for procedures including dental implants and hip replacements.
Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., and the other defendants were charged in February with body stealing, unlawful dissection and forgery in a case a district attorney called "something out of a cheap horror movie." All the defendants pleaded not guilty before being released on bail.
At the time, prosecutors said they had unearthed evidence that death certificates and other paperwork were falsified. In Cooke's case, his age was recorded as 85 rather than 95 and the cause of death was listed as heart attack instead of lung cancer that had spread to his bones.
LinkHere
By TOM HAYS
NEW YORK (AP) - Seven funeral home directors linked to a scheme to plunder corpses for transplantable body parts have secretly pleaded guilty to unspecified charges, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The unidentified directors have all agreed to cooperate in a probe of what investigators have said was an enterprise to harvest bone and tissue and sell it to biomedical supply companies, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said.
The seven entered their pleas in closed courtrooms and their names were withheld, but defense attorneys said that among those cooperating was the director of a funeral home that took parts from the body of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, who died in 2004.
Hynes also announced Wednesday that a grand jury has voted to bring additional charges in the case. A new indictment adds allegations involving funeral homes in Manhattan, the Bronx and Rochester, N.Y.
"It is clear that many more funeral home directors were involved in this enterprise," Hynes said.
Four original defendants in the case were to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.
Prosecutors allege Michael Mastromarino, a former oral surgeon, and three other men secretly removed skin, bone and other parts from hundreds of bodies from funeral homes, without the permission of families. He allegedly made millions of dollars by selling the stolen tissue to biomedical companies that supply material for procedures including dental implants and hip replacements.
Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., and the other defendants were charged in February with body stealing, unlawful dissection and forgery in a case a district attorney called "something out of a cheap horror movie." All the defendants pleaded not guilty before being released on bail.
At the time, prosecutors said they had unearthed evidence that death certificates and other paperwork were falsified. In Cooke's case, his age was recorded as 85 rather than 95 and the cause of death was listed as heart attack instead of lung cancer that had spread to his bones.
LinkHere
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 4:20 PM
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