Embalmer Granted Separate NYC Trial in Body Parts Scandal
www.1010wins.com/Embalmer-Gets-Own-NYC-Trial-in-Body-Parts-Scandal/1278425
Embalmer Granted Separate NYC Trial in Body Parts Scandal
Previous:
Hat Tip to LouSchuler
http://www.louschuler.com/archives/health/index.html#a001064
The Sum of Your Parts
I meant to write about the trade in stolen body parts from cadavers when I first read about it months ago. The topic has particular resonance for me because one of my unpublished novels revolved around the subject. The bad guys were killing people off, and pursuing the hero, because they needed certain materials for medical experiments, and these materials weren't parts of a human body that a living person was likely to give up for any amount of money.
(To give you a hint which body parts were involved, the title was Modern Biceps.)
Now the issue is back in the news:
Last week prosecutors charged four men, including Nicelli and the ring's supposed leader, a former Manhattan dentist named Michael Mastromarino, with running a multimillion-dollar body-snatching business that looted bones and tissue from more than a thousand corpses. The men, they say, then sold the body parts to legitimate companies that supplied hospitals around the United States. Hundreds of unsuspecting people have received the tissue, which is used in such procedures as joint and heart-valve replacements, back surgery, dental implants and skin grafts. Many are now rushing to doctors to be tested for tainted tissue. Some have already filed civil lawsuits. (One New Jersey lawyer alone has signed up some 200 clients.)
Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes didn't try to hide his disgust in announcing the 122-count indictment, which included charges of opening graves, body stealing, forgery, grand larceny and racketeering. "What happened here ... is like something out of a cheap horror movie." [Or, in my case, an unpublished mystery novel.] ...
Mastromarino, who once had a lucrative dental practice, surrendered his license in 2000 because he was addicted to the painkiller Demerol. He started a new career as a body harvester in nearby New Jersey, opening Biomedical Tissue Services, an FDA-registered company that appeared completely legit. Nicelli allegedly got many of the corpses from funeral directors in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia who had hired him to embalm them in his Brooklyn facility. A single harvested body could yield $7,000. Even after Nicelli sold the funeral home, he allegedly continued to help Mastromarino sneak into the secret operating room at night to dissect corpses. To hide their crimes, prosecutors say, Mastromarino and his cohorts replaced looted bones with plumbing pipes, and stuffed their surgical gloves and gowns into the bodies before stitching them back together. After robbing the bodies, the men allegedly forged death certificates to hide that the tissue had often been stolen from bodies that would have been rejected as donors being too old or sick.
We learned late last year that the bones of Alistair Cooke, who died two years ago at 95, were among those stolen:
According to the New York Daily News his bones were stolen by a criminal ring trading body parts.
They were later sold by a biomedical tissue company now under investigation, the paper claims.
When Cooke died of lung cancer that spread to his bones in March 2004, his body was taken to a funeral home in Manhattan.
Two days later, relatives of the iconic broadcaster received his ashes, which were then scattered in New York's Central Park.
Now they have been told that body snatchers allegedly surgically removed his bones and sold them for more than $7,000 (£4,000) to a company supplying parts for use in dental implants and various orthopaedic procedures.
Still, I'm intrigued by the idea that my bones and ligaments are worth just $7,000.
According to this article, an entire human body would be worth about $80,000, although the columnist doesn't offer any sources for that estimate.
Here's a report from Mozambique (!) that discusses the involvement of criminal gangs in the international black market for human body parts:
These groups usually kill specifically for the purpose of extracting organs. They rely on two methods: one is to contract with other criminals to murder the victims and then to extract the required organs; the second is to kill the victims themselves. The latter approach is often preferred because there is less risk that information relating to the murder will spread. According to police sources, one of the groups was arrested recently in Nampula Province. Corruption of customs officers is often relied upon when borders have to be crossed to supply organs in neighbouring countries. Police officers who obtain information about the activities of these groups are also bribed. Police statistics do not cover the activities of these groups and it is not known whether their activities are on the increase.
According to this, human-organ trafficking is part of the underbelly of globalization:
"The circulation of organs follows the modern routes of capital: from south to north; from third world to first world; from poor to rich; from black and brown to white. ... [Moreover] women are rarely the recipients of purchased organs." Prices of organs also follow world markets. For instance, a kidney in Iraq can be purchased for $500 to $1,000; in Manila, $1,000; in Lima, Peru, aroundr $10,000; and in the United States, $30,000.
Who are the buyers? They are the rich and medically insured, those who reject dialysis, and those who refuse organs from cadavers as "unhealthy, unnatural." Who are the sellers? Essentially, the young and poor, especially in places like Russia and Moldova: those who are in debt, those who are seeking ways to feed their family, and so on. Who are the brokers? Scheper-Hughes identified those who facilitate the buying and selling of organs as "international transplant coordinators," business corporations, doctors, religious and patient rights organizations, and local criminals.
If you're curious about the organ trade in your part of the world, you can use this interactive map.
Finally, there's the urban legend of the tourist who gets drugged and wakes up the next morning with a nasty scar, soon learning that she's been the unwilling victim of kidney theft.
According to Snopes.com, there's no known case of an organ being taken from an unwilling donor (at least not one who lived to tell about it), but there is at least one case of a willing donor later claiming he was robbed:
These horrific claims made by a Turkish man who'd been brought to Britain to sell a kidney are excerpted from a 8 December 1989 Reuters wire report:
Kurdish Moslem Ahmet Koc, 34, said through an interpreter he had been lured to Britain last year with the promise of a job by Turkish businessmen who told him he would need a medical check.He went to a hospital which he thought was a hotel and allowed himself to be given an injection which he believed was a blood test. When he came round he was told his appendix had been taken out. It was only three days later that he was told his kidney had been removed and transplanted into another patient in the hospital but that he would be paid a lot of money for it.
Well, there's news and there's news.
Far from being a victim, Koc was one of a consignment of four Turks who sold a kidney that day. The removals/transplants took place in Britain in 1988, and in January 1989 Koc went on record in Turkey with his tale of organ abduction, likely in an effort to get the organ brokers who'd handled his case into trouble with Turkish authorities. (Which he succeeded in doing -- one of the two brothers who'd arranged the sale was charged in January 1989 and sentenced to two years in jail in May of that year as a result of Koc's testimony. Koc received a two-year suspended sentence for his part in the illegal sale.)
But those were the innocent days of the illicit organ trade, when the victims were not just willing participants, they were compensated and received medical treatment.
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http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/01/human-chop-shop-operation-ultimate-in.html
Human "chop shop" operation: The ultimate in healthcare corruption
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http://blog.havocscope.com/2008/01/30/huge-organ-trafficking-ring-busted-up-in-india/
Huge organ trafficking ring busted up in India
An organ trafficking network that is believed to have transplanted between 400 to 500 kidneys over 9 years was recently broken up by authorities in India.
From the International Herald Tribune:
As the anesthetic wore off, Naseem Mohammed felt an acute pain somewhere in the lower left part of his abdomen. Fighting off drowsiness, he fumbled […]
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http://blog.havocscope.com/2008/01/28/organ-trafficking-in-the-philippines/
Organ Trafficking in the Philippines
The Department of Health said the cost of a kidney in the country was estimated at 150,000 pesos ($3,600), with the donor getting only a third of the amount while two-thirds went to middlemen.
Several Web sites offer all-inclusive “transplant packages”, ranging from $70,000 to $160,000, […]
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http://blog.havocscope.com/2007/12/18/organ-trafficking-prices-in-israel/
Organ trafficking prices in Israel
Two men in Israel were sentenced yesterday for trafficking humans for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs. In the indictment, kidneys were harvested at prices between $125,000 to $135,000. Like other activities of the black market, service providers are able to manipulate and control the consumers because of the lack of government oversight and legal […]
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2254932,00.html
Amit Kumar, 43, is accused of running a private hospital just outside Delhi which allegedly lured or forced hundreds of poor people into giving up their kidneys, and made millions by selling their organs....
Embalmer Granted Separate NYC Trial in Body Parts Scandal
A former funeral parlor owner and embalmer accused in a plot to plunder corpses and sell the body parts for transplants has been granted a separate trial because he needs more time to recover from a serious head injury, prosecutors said Monday.
Joseph Nicelli has been rehabilitating since suffering the injury in January by falling off a roof, but has not made enough progress to appear at an upcoming trial with three co-defendants. The trial is expected to begin sometime early next year in Brooklyn.
The four men were charged last year with removing skin, bone and other parts from hundreds of bodies at funeral homes in New York without family permission. A related case involving nearly 250 bodies has been brought in Philadelphia as well.
Seven funeral directors have since pleaded guilty to undisclosed charges and agreed to cooperate. Lawyers have said one was the director of a funeral home that took parts from the body of the late "Masterpiece Theatre'' host Alistair Cooke.Previous:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1583825/posts
Official: 4 Face Charges in Stolen Body Parts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1546273/posts
Details Emerge From Body Part Theft Case
Related:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1571528/posts
N.J. Firm Closed Amid Body Parts Probe
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1566574/posts
Bolster trust, chase greed away from death's door (NY-bones stolen from crematorium ..unreal)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1553644/posts
Stolen Human Tissue
Hat Tip to LouSchuler
http://www.louschuler.com/archives/health/index.html#a001064
The Sum of Your Parts
I meant to write about the trade in stolen body parts from cadavers when I first read about it months ago. The topic has particular resonance for me because one of my unpublished novels revolved around the subject. The bad guys were killing people off, and pursuing the hero, because they needed certain materials for medical experiments, and these materials weren't parts of a human body that a living person was likely to give up for any amount of money.
(To give you a hint which body parts were involved, the title was Modern Biceps.)
Now the issue is back in the news:
Last week prosecutors charged four men, including Nicelli and the ring's supposed leader, a former Manhattan dentist named Michael Mastromarino, with running a multimillion-dollar body-snatching business that looted bones and tissue from more than a thousand corpses. The men, they say, then sold the body parts to legitimate companies that supplied hospitals around the United States. Hundreds of unsuspecting people have received the tissue, which is used in such procedures as joint and heart-valve replacements, back surgery, dental implants and skin grafts. Many are now rushing to doctors to be tested for tainted tissue. Some have already filed civil lawsuits. (One New Jersey lawyer alone has signed up some 200 clients.)
Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes didn't try to hide his disgust in announcing the 122-count indictment, which included charges of opening graves, body stealing, forgery, grand larceny and racketeering. "What happened here ... is like something out of a cheap horror movie." [Or, in my case, an unpublished mystery novel.] ...
Mastromarino, who once had a lucrative dental practice, surrendered his license in 2000 because he was addicted to the painkiller Demerol. He started a new career as a body harvester in nearby New Jersey, opening Biomedical Tissue Services, an FDA-registered company that appeared completely legit. Nicelli allegedly got many of the corpses from funeral directors in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia who had hired him to embalm them in his Brooklyn facility. A single harvested body could yield $7,000. Even after Nicelli sold the funeral home, he allegedly continued to help Mastromarino sneak into the secret operating room at night to dissect corpses. To hide their crimes, prosecutors say, Mastromarino and his cohorts replaced looted bones with plumbing pipes, and stuffed their surgical gloves and gowns into the bodies before stitching them back together. After robbing the bodies, the men allegedly forged death certificates to hide that the tissue had often been stolen from bodies that would have been rejected as donors being too old or sick.
We learned late last year that the bones of Alistair Cooke, who died two years ago at 95, were among those stolen:
According to the New York Daily News his bones were stolen by a criminal ring trading body parts.
They were later sold by a biomedical tissue company now under investigation, the paper claims.
When Cooke died of lung cancer that spread to his bones in March 2004, his body was taken to a funeral home in Manhattan.
Two days later, relatives of the iconic broadcaster received his ashes, which were then scattered in New York's Central Park.
Now they have been told that body snatchers allegedly surgically removed his bones and sold them for more than $7,000 (£4,000) to a company supplying parts for use in dental implants and various orthopaedic procedures.
Still, I'm intrigued by the idea that my bones and ligaments are worth just $7,000.
According to this article, an entire human body would be worth about $80,000, although the columnist doesn't offer any sources for that estimate.
Here's a report from Mozambique (!) that discusses the involvement of criminal gangs in the international black market for human body parts:
These groups usually kill specifically for the purpose of extracting organs. They rely on two methods: one is to contract with other criminals to murder the victims and then to extract the required organs; the second is to kill the victims themselves. The latter approach is often preferred because there is less risk that information relating to the murder will spread. According to police sources, one of the groups was arrested recently in Nampula Province. Corruption of customs officers is often relied upon when borders have to be crossed to supply organs in neighbouring countries. Police officers who obtain information about the activities of these groups are also bribed. Police statistics do not cover the activities of these groups and it is not known whether their activities are on the increase.
According to this, human-organ trafficking is part of the underbelly of globalization:
"The circulation of organs follows the modern routes of capital: from south to north; from third world to first world; from poor to rich; from black and brown to white. ... [Moreover] women are rarely the recipients of purchased organs." Prices of organs also follow world markets. For instance, a kidney in Iraq can be purchased for $500 to $1,000; in Manila, $1,000; in Lima, Peru, aroundr $10,000; and in the United States, $30,000.
Who are the buyers? They are the rich and medically insured, those who reject dialysis, and those who refuse organs from cadavers as "unhealthy, unnatural." Who are the sellers? Essentially, the young and poor, especially in places like Russia and Moldova: those who are in debt, those who are seeking ways to feed their family, and so on. Who are the brokers? Scheper-Hughes identified those who facilitate the buying and selling of organs as "international transplant coordinators," business corporations, doctors, religious and patient rights organizations, and local criminals.
If you're curious about the organ trade in your part of the world, you can use this interactive map.
Finally, there's the urban legend of the tourist who gets drugged and wakes up the next morning with a nasty scar, soon learning that she's been the unwilling victim of kidney theft.
According to Snopes.com, there's no known case of an organ being taken from an unwilling donor (at least not one who lived to tell about it), but there is at least one case of a willing donor later claiming he was robbed:
These horrific claims made by a Turkish man who'd been brought to Britain to sell a kidney are excerpted from a 8 December 1989 Reuters wire report:
Kurdish Moslem Ahmet Koc, 34, said through an interpreter he had been lured to Britain last year with the promise of a job by Turkish businessmen who told him he would need a medical check.He went to a hospital which he thought was a hotel and allowed himself to be given an injection which he believed was a blood test. When he came round he was told his appendix had been taken out. It was only three days later that he was told his kidney had been removed and transplanted into another patient in the hospital but that he would be paid a lot of money for it.
Well, there's news and there's news.
Far from being a victim, Koc was one of a consignment of four Turks who sold a kidney that day. The removals/transplants took place in Britain in 1988, and in January 1989 Koc went on record in Turkey with his tale of organ abduction, likely in an effort to get the organ brokers who'd handled his case into trouble with Turkish authorities. (Which he succeeded in doing -- one of the two brothers who'd arranged the sale was charged in January 1989 and sentenced to two years in jail in May of that year as a result of Koc's testimony. Koc received a two-year suspended sentence for his part in the illegal sale.)
But those were the innocent days of the illicit organ trade, when the victims were not just willing participants, they were compensated and received medical treatment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/01/human-chop-shop-operation-ultimate-in.html
Human "chop shop" operation: The ultimate in healthcare corruption
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://blog.havocscope.com/2008/01/30/huge-organ-trafficking-ring-busted-up-in-india/
Huge organ trafficking ring busted up in India
An organ trafficking network that is believed to have transplanted between 400 to 500 kidneys over 9 years was recently broken up by authorities in India.
From the International Herald Tribune:
As the anesthetic wore off, Naseem Mohammed felt an acute pain somewhere in the lower left part of his abdomen. Fighting off drowsiness, he fumbled […]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://blog.havocscope.com/2008/01/28/organ-trafficking-in-the-philippines/
Organ Trafficking in the Philippines
The Department of Health said the cost of a kidney in the country was estimated at 150,000 pesos ($3,600), with the donor getting only a third of the amount while two-thirds went to middlemen.
Several Web sites offer all-inclusive “transplant packages”, ranging from $70,000 to $160,000, […]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://blog.havocscope.com/2007/12/18/organ-trafficking-prices-in-israel/
Organ trafficking prices in Israel
Two men in Israel were sentenced yesterday for trafficking humans for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs. In the indictment, kidneys were harvested at prices between $125,000 to $135,000. Like other activities of the black market, service providers are able to manipulate and control the consumers because of the lack of government oversight and legal […]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2254932,00.html
Amit Kumar, 43, is accused of running a private hospital just outside Delhi which allegedly lured or forced hundreds of poor people into giving up their kidneys, and made millions by selling their organs....
Posted by Defend Our Freedoms at 12/29/2007 10:32 AM 
Categories: Body Brokers
Tags: NEWYORKCITYCOMMUNITY.US
Categories: Body Brokers
Tags: NEWYORKCITYCOMMUNITY.US
I find it interesting that after this Body Parts Scandal that some of our state funeral homes were involved in, that Senator Dick Codey, of the National and State Association of Funeral Directors, is the sponsor of this bill that Mandates Organ Donor Decisions.
http://www.nj1015.com/absolutenm/templates/?a=9667&z=1
Reply to this
The bill to approve requiring New Jersey residents to get driver's licenses that say whether or not they want to be an organ donor has past the Senate and awaits Assembly approval.
Reply to this
Are You Dead Yet?
You better hope so. New York is in receipt of a 3 year grant for an organ wagon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_organ_recovery_ambulance
Reply to this
Senate President, and licensed funeral director, Richard Codey wants your organs or no Driver's License.
NEWS RELEASE
Governor Jon S. Corzine
July 22, 2008
Sean Darcy
Jim Gardner
609-777-2600
ACTING GOVERNOR CODEY SIGNS NEW JERSEY HERO ACT
Establishes State as Pioneer in Organ Donation
LIVINGSTON – Acting Governor Richard J. Codey today signed legislation that forges New Jersey’s standing as a pioneer in organ donation by requiring residents to make organ donation decisions before applying for a driver’s license and requires mandatory organ donation education for high school students.
“Our goal is to generate a collective awareness about the importance of organ donation so that those who want to donate will. Ultimately, we want to move this important conversation out of the emergency room, where illness and injury already create a profound burden, and into the living room, where a thoughtful and deliberate decision can be reached without the pain of loss looming on the horizon. Hopefully, one day organ donation will no longer be an afterthought, but a forethought,” said Acting Governor Codey.
The bill, S755/A2083 also known as the “New Jersey Hero Act,” creates an interactive component to the already existing Donate Life Registry provided by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC). Approximately 23.53 % of New Jersey drivers/ID holders currently have the donor designation.
With the legislation every resident 18 years of age or older applying for a driver’s license or identification card is required to answer a few simple, yet potentially life-saving questions, regarding organ donation. If an individual is not ready to make that decision, they may designate a decision maker on their behalf. The designated decision maker component is not recorded in the MVC database, but will act much like a living will. If a person does not wish to become a donor or designate a decision maker on their behalf, they must check off a box acknowledging that they have reviewed the importance of making an organ donation decision. This process will be available in nine months but will not be mandatory for five years in order to allow for adequate public education.
Overall, the measure is a crucial component to increasing the number of organ donors in the Garden State because it alleviates certain fears that the donor decision will affect the quality of care received in an emergency room.
“The death of a loved one can be devastating to a family, but families of organ donors at least have a measure of solace in knowing their loved one’s final act was to give the gift of life to someone else in need,” said Senator Joseph F. Vitale (D-Middlesex), a sponsor of the Hero Act and Chair of the Senate Health Committee. “Through these new laws, we’re raising the dialogue about organ donation, and ensuring that New Jerseyans talk to their loved ones about the possibility of becoming a donor. By increasing awareness of organ donation programs, we can maximize participation and save lives.”
The bill also incorporates a comprehensive education component at the high school and collegiate levels. Under the NJ Hero Act, New Jersey is the first state to incorporate mandatory organ donation education into the high school core curriculum, beginning with the 2009-2010 school year. At the collegiate level, institutions of higher education will be required to provide information on New Jersey’s organ donor policies through student health services.
“By increasing outreach and education, all New Jerseyans will be able to make better-informed decisions regarding organ and tissue donation,” said Assemblyman McKeon (D-Essex). “Ensuring every resident knows the vital importance of organ donation will make it easier for many more people to take the simple but truly heroic step that can help save a life.”
As of March 2008, 4,341 New Jersey residents were awaiting organ transplants. In 2007, 692 New Jersey residents received 696 lifesaving organ transplants; 195 New Jersey residents became organ donors that same year. More than 2,470 New Jersey residents have died on the organ donor waiting list over the last 10 years.
Assembly sponsors of the bill include Assemblymen John F. McKeon (D-Essex), Albert Coutinho (D-Essex/Union) and Patrick Diegnan, Jr. (D-Middlesex) and Assemblywoman Mila M. Jasey (D-Essex).
The second piece of legislation signed, S753/A1935, the “Anatomical Research Recovery Organization Act,” provides substantial oversight of the disposition and use of human bodies and parts donated for education and research. Prior to the bill, very little regulation existed with regard to who may recover, or distribute these donations.
A body, part, or tissue, once gifted to an unlicensed, unregistered, unregulated entity may be virtually untraceable. With this legislation, anatomical research recovery organizations are now required to register with the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) and establish and follow certain standards for operation.
Codey and Senator Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) are primary sponsors of S753/A1935. Assembly sponsors include Assemblyman Herb Conaway, Jr., (D-Burlington) and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen).
###
Senate President Richard J. Codey (D-Essex) is serving as Acting Governor while Governor Jon S. Corzine is in Israel.###
Reply to this
Yes, What a GHOULISH story this is.
UNFORTUNATELY, AMERICA'S CRIMINAL USURPER BARRY SOETORO/BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA'S CONSTANT CRIMINAL DEEDS & HIS CRIMINAL USURPATION OF OUR WHITE HOUSE & THE USA PRESIDENT'S OFFICE IS SINCERELY - EVEN FAR MORE GHOULISH - THAN EVEN THIS UNBELIEVABLY SICK, BUT TRUE "HARVESTING BODY PARTS FROM DEAD PEOPLE TO SELL AS STERILE FRESH TRANSPLANT BODY PARTS" STORY IS!!
WHY?! SOETORO/OBAMA HAS ALREADY SOLD ALL 305 MILLION AMERICANS OUT BY BEING AN ILLEGAL PRESIDENT & BY USURPING OUR USA WHITE HOUSE & SOETORO/OBAMA IS PRO-LATE TERM ABORTIONS!! AND SOETOTO/OBAMA HE DEFINITELY WANTS TO DESTROY & KILL ALL AMERICANS IN POPULATION REDUCTION, & PUT US ALL 10 FEET UNDER!!
WE THE PEOPLE MUST GET RID OF SOETORO/OBAMA OR HE WILL GET RID OF ALL OF US AMERICANS!!
Reply to this
Excerpt:
A former dentist charged with stealing body parts from more than 1,000 corpses appeared in court in New York Wednesday, in a ghoulish case compared by prosecutors to "a cheap horror movie."
Michael Mastromarino stands charged with harvesting organs, body parts and tissue taken from the bodies of people who never consented to be donors, including that of veteran BBC broadcaster Alistair Cooke.
Mastromarino, 44, who was led handcuffed into court, was said by his lawyer to be ready to plead guilty under the terms of a deal with prosecutors that would see him facing 18 to 54 years in jail instead of a life term.
"My client is ready, willing and able to take a plea that was offered by the district attorney's office three weeks ago," Mastromarino's lawyer Mario Gallucci told reporters. "He is still willing to do that and wants to do that."
Prosecutor Josh Hanshaft said that while the deal was still on the table, "if it doesn't work out, we are going to have to go to trial."
Judge Albert Tomei ordered the case to be adjourned until February 27, after Gallucci said that prosecutors had asked for more time to consider the feelings of the families of the victims in the case.
(snip)
Woo! Thank goodness the legal language is being changed to make this illegal harvest a LEGAL harvest! Otherwise, the deal he was offered might not work out!
The new language coming into law:
www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/A2500/2083_I1.HTM
“New Jersey Hero Act”; appropriates $80,000 to MVC from General Fund.
Reply to this
Judge to Accept Plea Deal for Body Parts 'Mastermind'
From 1010Wins News:
A man accused of plundering dead bodies and selling their parts to tissue companies for transplants will plead guilty after a judge rebuked prosecutors Wednesday and refused to let them renege on a deal they reached with him weeks ago.
Read More at 1010Wins
http://www.1010wins.com/pages/1730297.php?
I'm very glad to see this. I mistakenly thought Michael Mastromarino would get off on a plea deal since the language of the law was changed in New York and New Jersey.
Reply to this
Nurse admits stealing body parts from 244 corpses
A nurse admitted Wednesday he cut body parts from 244 corpses and helped forge paperwork so the parts, some of them diseased, could be used in unsuspecting patients.
Authorities say nurse Lee Cruceta was the lead cutter in a group that trafficked in more than 1,000 stolen body parts for the lucrative transplant market. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy, taking part in a corrupt organization, abuse of a corpse and 244 counts each of theft and forgery. Cruceta, 35, also has pleaded guilty to related charges in New York and negotiated pleas to serve concurrent sentences of 6 1/2 to 20 years.
He is expected to testify against the other defendants, and won't be formally sentenced until those cases are resolved. Several funeral directors have pleaded guilty in New York, and the accused ringleader Michael Mastromarino, 44, is being held in the case.
(snip)
Reply to this
Inside the grim trade in human flesh and bone
Excerpt from YourLawyer.com:
"Two people would cut one on the left side and one on the right," said Lee Cruceta, one of the body cutters. "There was also a 'back table' guy, whose job was to open a sterile bag. We'd drop tissue in it; he'd label it and put it on ice."
The funeral home was the stately Funeraria Santa Cruz, a landmark in Newark's North Ward also known as Berardinelli Forest Hill Memorial. Until now, it has never been associated with the international stolen body parts scandal that broke in New York City last winter.
But the Fort Lee man at the center of that scandal also operated at Santz Cruz. At least some of the body parts removed from cadavers there were taken without families' consent, and the fu neral home owner is under investigation by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, according to law enforcement sources. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
Santa Cruz was more than a major source of body parts, say people who worked there. It was also a training ground for future corpse-cutters.
Tissue harvesting is big business in the United States and perfectly legal, but it can also be a criminal enterprise.
(snip)
Stephen Finley, owner of Santa Cruz, has not been charged in connection to Mastromarino's operation. He declined to respond to repeated messages left by phone, mail and in person.
The 43-year-old resident of Mur ray Hill, a marathoner well known in running circles, bought the Newark funeral home from Carmine Be rardinelli in November 2000, property records show. From 2003 to 2005, Finley held a contract with the city of Newark to bury indi gents and unclaimed bodies; he currently holds a similar contract with Essex County through 2007.
Edgar Rivera of Newark, a former Santa Cruz employee, confirmed that Mastromarino and his crews were regular visitors to Santa Cruz in 2004 and 2005. Rivera lived in an apartment upstairs at the time; one of his responsibilities was to greet visitors; another was to pick up the bodies of the newly dead.
(snip)
Read More at YourLawyer.com
http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/11945
Reply to this
GHOULISH TRIP Body-snatch suspect sought dead cons' bones in Russia
October 2006
Excerpt:
A GHOUL CHARGED in the notorious body-snatching case went all the way to Russia to try to obtain bones and other body parts from dead prisoners, the Daily News has learned.
Alleged ringleader Michael Mastromarino traveled to Russia to make a deal with a prison official on behalf of an American company that bought skin, bones, ligaments and other tissue for transplants, his lawyer Mario Gallucci confirmed yesterday.
Mastromarino "traveled once to Russia in 2002 on behalf of Regeneration Technologies because they wanted additional sources for bones," Gallucci told The News.
"It was too unsanitary. That's what was determined. So it never went through," Gallucci said. "The companies were always looking for new sources of bodies because the demand was so high."
It is illegal under most circumstances to import body parts into the U.S.
(snip)
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2006/10/19/2006-10-19_ghoulish_trip__body-snatch_s.html
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http://www.1010wins.com/-Cutter--Convicted-in-Plot-to-Carve-Up-Cadavers-fo/2085053
Posted: Monday, 28 April 2008 3:01PM
'Cutter' Convicted in Plot to Carve Up Cadavers for Profit
NEW YORK (AP) -- A judge has convicted a man accused of secretly cutting up corpses -- including that of "Masterpiece Theatre'' host Alistair Cooke _ as part of a multimillion-dollar body parts scheme.
Chris Aldorasi was found guilty on Monday of enterprise corruption and other criminal counts at a trial in Brooklyn. The defendant, who chose to have a judge hear his case instead of a jury, faces up to 25 years in prison on the most serious charges.
Prosecutors had alleged that Aldorasi and other so-called "cutters,'' working in tandem with unscrupulous funeral parlor owners, took the parts without family permission, then sold them for use in transplants and other medical procedures.
Michael Mastromarino, the scheme's ringleader, pleaded guilty earlier this year. He has admitted that he didn't get consent for any of the hundreds of bodies he plundered.
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