Health

Crude Details Of Body Parts Scam Emerge In Court

BROOKLYN (CBS/AP) ― After the leg bones were surgically and secretly removed from the dead, Joseph Nicelli says, it was his job to "restore" the corpses for funerals -- as if the looting never happened.

One technique involved using socks to hide the procedures, Nicelli told authorities investigating a stolen body parts scandal.

It didn't always work: Nicelli described how once "the daughter of the deceased came up to him and expressed her concerns (that) her father looked shorter in the coffin," according to a police report.

Perhaps worse, Nicelli "believes that the deceased was a member of the Mafia," investigators added.

The report, in court files obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, details a lengthy statement given by Nicelli before he was charged in a scheme to take bone, skin and other non-organ parts from hundreds of bodies from funeral homes in New York, Rochester, Philadelphia and New Jersey without the consent of the families of the deceased.

Nicelli implicated Michael Mastromarino, a former oral surgeon, as the mastermind of a plot that made millions of dollars by selling the stolen tissue to biomedical companies that supply material for procedures including dental implants and hip replacements. Among the bodies was that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, who died in 2004.

During a failed bid in 2005 to head off his arrest and become a cooperator, Nicelli admitted that after collecting bodies for embalming or cremation he would divert them to Mastromarino and his team of so-called "cutters" to carve up without permission, the police report said.

Nicelli, 50, "stated maybe he spoke with two families about a possible donation, but all other extractions were done without consent," the report said.

He further claimed he overheard Mastromarino describing how on paperwork he "would change a donor's criteria such as age," the report added. "He would make them younger, which would be more attractive to the companies accepting the tissue."

Mastromarino also changed times of death to make the parts appear fresher and extracted them from cancer victims without telling the tissue banks, some of which consider the disease a disqualifying condition, Nicelli told investigators, according to the report.

Nicelli said that when he questioned the doctored paperwork, Mastromarino told him, "Don't worry about it."

Mastromarino has denied any wrongdoing, saying it was the funeral directors' role -- not his -- to obtain consent and medical histories of dead people and he took their word for it that the bodies were suitable for harvesting.

Nicelli's statement "is consistent with what Dr. Mastromarino has been saying all along," his attorney, Mario Gallucci, said Thursday.

A telephone call to Nicelli's attorney was not returned Thursday.

Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services, of Fort Lee, N.J., Nicelli and two other people, accused of being cutters, 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 in Brooklyn said they had unearthed evidence that death certificates and other paperwork were falsified. With Cooke, his age was recorded as 85 rather than 95 and the cause of death was listed as a heart attack instead of lung cancer that had spread to his bones.

In some cases, X-rays and photos of exhumed cadavers show that where leg bones should have been, someone had inserted white plastic pipes -- the kind used for home plumbing projects, available at any hardware store. The pipes were crudely reconnected to hip and ankle bones with screws before the legs were sewn back up.

The defendants are scheduled to appear in court next week. Mastromarino's attorney said prosecutors have notified the defense they will ask for a delay in the case because a grand jury is hearing new evidence that could result in additional charges.

Prosecutors declined to comment.

7th Family Sues Biomedical Firm

Another lawsuit has been filed in Rochester claiming a New Jersey firm harvested the body parts of a deceased loved one without permission. The suit -- filed in state Supreme Court on Tuesday -- claims the remains of George Wagner were unlawfully harvested by Biomedical Tissue Services.

The suit also names Burger Funeral Home in Hilton, some 20 miles northwest of Rochester. Legal papers say the collection of the body parts took place at the funeral home. Seven lawsuits have been filed against Biomedical in Rochester courts.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)