Nov 17, 2008 2:44 pm US/Eastern
Upstate NY Corpse Plundering Trial Begins
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) ―
A former funeral director said Monday he was duped by an unscrupulous biomedical company owner into removing body parts without permission from 23 corpses.
Jason Gano, 32, is the first of seven people to stand trial in Rochester on charges of illegally dissecting skin, bone and other parts from bodies being prepared for cremation at four funeral homes.
Michael Mastromarino, who masterminded the scheme as owner of Fort Lee, N.J.-based Biomedical Tissue Services, sent Gano forged documents indicating relatives had given their consent, defense lawyer Adrian Burke said in opening statements.
Gano was "as surprised by that fraud as the relatives" of the dead, Burke said.
But prosecutor Jennifer Whitman countered that Gano systematically allowed Mastromarino's employees to loot bodies without permission. "This was bone and tissue stealing," she said.
The trial, which began last week, could extend for several weeks. If convicted, Gano could draw as much as 10 years to 20 years in prison.
Biomedical Tissue Services operated its only satellite office in the Rochester suburb of Brighton and paid funeral homes a standard fee of about $1,000 to lawfully harvest body parts.
Investigators said that employees Darlene Deats, Kevin Vickers, Nicholas Sloyer and Kirssy Knapp removed bone and tissue without proper consent from 36 corpses in 2005 -- including 23 bodies at Thomas E. Burger Funeral Home in the suburb of Hilton, 11 bodies at Profetta Funeral Chapel in the suburb of Webster and two bodies at Serenity Hills Funeral Chapel in Rochester.
They were indicted on body stealing, unlawful dissection and other felony charges along with Gano, Burger's former funeral director, Profetta's director Scott Batjer and Serenity Hills' director Serrell Gayton.
The scandal dates to February 2006, when Mastromarino and others were accused of cutting up corpses from funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The bodies included that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke.
The sometimes-diseased parts were sold and used in about 10,000 surgical procedures performed by unsuspecting doctors in the United States and Canada.
Mastromarino is serving 18 to 54 years for running the scam in New York and a concurrent sentence of 25 to 58 years after pleading guilty to hundreds of charges in Philadelphia last month.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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