A bizarre and shameful case involving an illegal body-parts sales scheme that has been making headlines for the past couple of years has made its way back into the courtroom more than once this year, the latest having been during the last week in April when a class action lawsuit representing hundreds of people who are alleging that their family members' body parts were taken and sold for medical use without their permission was filed in a proceeding that has also become a criminal case for several of those named in the suit. Families involved in the class action suit have claimed that the bodies of more than 1,000 people had been dismembered and that their bones, skin, heart valves, tendons, and other tissue had been sold to hospitals by the funeral homes representing the deceased and their grieving relatives via Biomedical Tissue Services, a business located in Fort Lee, New Jersey. It was also alleged that the body parts in question had been harvested and sold under unsanitary conditions and that patients on the receiving end ran the risk of becoming infected. The suit, filed in a Philadelphia court, charged that the funeral homes, their directors, and others involved in the scheme had played a role in a conspiracy that had ultimately inflicted intentional emotional distress upon the relatives and reaped millions for the perpetrators. The case was the same one that involved Masterpiece Theatre host Alistair Cooke, whose body parts were sold for medical transplants following his death in March 2004.
Named in the lawsuit are Michael Mastromarino, Christopher Aldorasi, Lee Cruceta, Kevin Vickers, Gerald Garzone, Louis Garzone (Gerald Garzone's brother), and James McCafferty. The lawsuit alleges that the aforementioned individuals made $3.8 million by selling body parts that they obtained in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. There were 1,007 bodies, to be precise, from which body parts were harvested and sold between February 2004 and September 2005. According to a grand jury report, the scheme was "ghoulish, greedy, dangerous and criminal."
According to the New York Times, Michael Mastromarino, 44, a dentist from New Jersey who had lost his license to practice, was the owner of the biomedical supply house and ran the corrupt multi-million dollar illegal enterprise that sold the pillaged body parts through his business. Mastromarino pled guilty to being the ringleader of the operation on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 in a Brooklyn court.
"Not only did he cut corners, but he cut limbs and legs and arms," said Assistant District Attorney Josh Hansheft. "He mutilated bodies for his profit and greed….We all respect the dead; in this case, nobody respected the dead."
Mastromarino and his cohorts were referred to as "modern-day body snatchers" in news media reports.
Among the charges that the contemporary grave robber pleaded guilty to were several counts of enterprise corruption, reckless endangerment and body stealing in exchange for 18 to 54 years in prison. He could have faced considerably more prison time had he chose to have gone to trial and been convicted on all of the counts of which he had been charged. His actual sentence will be determined on May 21, 2008.
Lee Cruceta, 39, a surgical nurse who was described as Mastromarino's "right-hand man" and was known as the "lead cutter" in the case, pled guilty earlier in the year to conspiracy, corrupt organization, and a number of other charges that included 244 counts of theft, one count of fraudulent business practices and one count of abuse of a corpse in exchange for a 6-year prison sentence. He had faced a maximum of 1,700 years in prison if he had been convicted of all of the charges, had he gone to trial. Part of Cruceta's deal was that he agreed to testify against another defendant, Christopher Aldorasi, 36, who refused all offers to plead guilty. On Monday, April 28, 2008, Aldorasi was convicted of 20 counts of falsifying documents, forgery, and racketeering. He faces up to 60 years in prison when he is sentenced.
"I'd just like to spit on him," said the daughter of one of the victims. "I think he got what he deserved…my heart breaks for his wife, kids and family. People don't realize what they do to those they love. But we've been living with a life sentence every day…this wasn't just an assault on the dead—it was an assault on the living."
According to the authorities, the scam involved either Mastromarino or Cruceta receiving a telephone call informing them that there were bodies available for harvesting. Mastromarino had made agreements with three individuals who operated as many funeral homes in which he would pay each individual $1,000 per body that was provided. Each of the bodies was given a number instead of a name—some of the bodies had cancer, sepsis, hepatitis or HIV infections, information that was withheld from the hospitals that purchased the body parts. Medical records were forged, and documents with fake names, ages, and attestations that the bodies were free of disease were provided when the transactions were made. Cruceta confessed that he had falsified documents and had substituted blood free of disease for the blood that had accompanied the diseased tissue that had later been used in transplants. Cruceta's sentencing has been set for June 30, 2008.
Prosecutors described the scheme as "something out of a cheap horror movie."
"I think we can agree that the conduct uncovered in this case is among the most ghastly imaginable," said Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner of New York's Department of Investigation. "It was shockingly callous in its disregard for the sanctity of human remains."
X-rays and photographs taken of cadavers that had been exhumed depicted white pvc pipe that had been inserted in place of the leg bones that had been removed, and which had been connected to hip and ankle bones with screws before the legs had been sewn up in a crude manner.
Another man, Brooklyn funeral home owner Joseph Nicelli, was also involved in the operation. Nicelli, who was also charged in the case, was paid to bring cadavers to a secret, makeshift operating room located inside his funeral home business where Mastromarino, Cruceta, and Aldorasi allegedly removed many of the body parts. When they had finished their horrid surgery, the bodies were returned to unsuspecting undertakers who then prepared them for burial.
The case first came to light in late 2004 when it became apparent that Nicelli had allegedly cheated customers out of deposits paid by grieving loved ones who wanted a proper burial for their relatives. A detective who visited the funeral home to investigate the allegations became suspicious after seeing the secret operating room.
Nicelli, 52, suffered a serious head injury in a fall and will not stand trial until he recovers.
Part of Mastromarino's guilty plea requires him, his wife, and his company to pay $4.6 million to the district attorney's office, which will divide the money among the relatives of the deceased victims affected by the harvesting operation.