Feb 23, 2006 7:50 pm US/Eastern
Bodypart Snatchers Arraigned On Several Charges
Indictments The Last Chapter Of Widening Scandal
NEW YORK (AP) ―
The owner of a New Jersey biomedical firm made millions of dollars by stealing body parts from a Brooklyn funeral home and selling them for procedures done by doctors across the country, prosecutors said Thursday.
Michael Mastromarino, the owner of Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., Joseph Micelli, a Brooklyn mortician, and two other men were arraigned on charges including enterprise corruption, body stealing, opening graves, unlawful dissection and forgery.
All four pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors alleged that the men conspired to secretly take bones, skin and other body parts from cadavers without the permission of families of the deceased.
The indictments are the latest chapter in a widening scandal involving scores of funeral homes and hundreds of looted bodies, including that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, who died in March 2004.
The bodies came from funeral homes in New York City, Rochester, Philadelphia and New Jersey that contracted with the Brooklyn funeral parlor for embalming. Prosecutors said more arrests were possible.
Mastromarino, Micelli, Crucetta and Aldorasi allegedly forged birth certificates and consent forms to disguise the fact that some of the bodies were too old or diseased for safe harvesting.
"I think we can agree that the conduct uncovered in this case is among the most ghastly imaginable," said Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner of the city Department of Investigation. "It was shockingly callous in its disregard for the sanctity of human remains."
"This case is unique in the utter disregard for human decency," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said.
The 122-count indictment alleges the defendants forged death certificates and organ donor consent forms to create the appearance the tissue was legally harvested. The activities spanned from 2001 to 2005, prosecutors said.
Mastromarino went into the tissue business after losing his license as an oral surgeon, prosecutors said. Micelli was his co-partner, they said.
Prosecutors allege that Mastromarino secretly removed bones, tendons, heart valves and other tissue from cadavers at Micelli's funeral parlor.
Defense attorney Mario Gallucci said in a statement Wednesday that Mastromarino had followed existing rules regulating the harvesting of tissue donated by families at funeral homes.
Mastromarino "vehemently denies doing anything illegal or wrong," the lawyer said.
A judge in Brooklyn set Mastromarino's bail at $1.5 million, Micelli's at $250,000 and Crucetta's and Aldorasi's at $500,000 each.
Federal and local authorities launched the nine-month investigation after receiving a tip that Mastromarino and others had paid off funeral homes so they could take tissue from the dead without their families' knowledge.
Investigators say some body parts came from elderly people and perhaps victims of infectious diseases, and the paperwork was doctored to say they had been younger and healthier. They say the suspects profited by selling the tissue to companies that turned it into products used for disk replacements, dental implants and a variety of other surgeries done by unsuspecting doctors across the United States.
In Cooke's case, investigators claim Biomedical Tissue Services removed his bones without his family's permission before he was cremated. Cooke died of cancer at 95, but documents listed the cause of death as heart attack and lowered his age to 85.
Mastromarino contends he "was not responsible for interacting with the families of the deceased nor in obtaining the documentation needed to harvest the tissue," his lawyer said.
Late last year, the Food and Drug Administration ordered a recall of the potentially tainted products and warned that an untold number of patients could have been exposed to HIV and other diseases during the procedures. It also insisted the risk of infection was minimal.
In one such case, a Long Island woman sued the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System after she tested positive for syphilis after undergoing back surgery there. Following the surgery, the hospital informed her that donated human tissue -- harvested by Biomedical Tissue Services -- used in her surgery could have been tainted. A subsequent test showed that the woman did not have syphilis, and the hospital on Thursday filed a request for a court order, seeking sanctions against her for "filing frivolous litigation."
The woman, Patricia Battisti of Franklin Square, meanwhile, said she intended to file a new suit against the hospital, alleging emotional damage.
On Feb. 3, the FDA shut Biomedical Tissue Services, saying it had uncovered evidence the firm failed to screen for contaminated tissue. The agency also said it found that death certificates in the company's files were at odds with those on file with the state over the age of the deceased and the causes and times of death.
Allowing the firm to remain open "would present a danger to public health by increasing the risk of communicable disease transmission," said Margaret Glavin, the FDA's associate director of regulatory affairs.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
