Man behind body parts scheme pleads guilty, faces 18 to 54 years in prison The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The mastermind of a scheme to plunder corpses from funeral homes in the Northeast and sell them for millions of dollars pleaded guilty Tuesday in a deal that could send him to prison for the next five decades. Michael Mastromarino, a 44-year-old former oral surgeon, confessed to the judge that he carried out the scheme from 2001 to 2005. He will face between 18 years and 54 years, and will have to forfeit $4.68 million. He copped to 14 counts that include enterprise corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment. The plea comes more than two years after the gruesome scandal broke, with evidence that corpses were being hacked up without permission or proper screening for diseases and sold for dental implants, knee and hip replacements and other procedures around the country. The looted bodies included that of “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke. Authorities released photos of exhumed corpses that were boned below the waist. Prosecutors said the defendants had made a crude attempt to cover their tracks by sewing PVC pipe back into the bodies in time for open-casket wakes. Dressed in a button-down Ralph Lauren shirt and blue jeans, a bespectacled Mastromarino calmly answered “yes” as prosecutors outlined the gruesome accusations in a nearly hourlong confession. Mastromarino, smiling and fidgeting at times, admitted to forging records, including the times of death and the ages of the dead, as well as switching blood and tissue samples. Mastromarino said he stole Cooke’s body parts — one of more than 1,000 victims. “What he did was wrong,” his defense lawyer, Mario Galluci, said outside court. “I feel horrible for the victims in this case. There is no excuse for what he did.” After the hearing ended, Brooklyn prosecutor Josh Hanshaft said Mastromarino “mutilated the bodies for greed.” Mastromarino’s wife, Barbra, who will forfeit $190,000 in connection with the case, declined to comment. The two have been married for more than 15 years and have two children. Mastromarino will be sentenced in May. Mastromarino was the owner of Biomedical Tissue Services, a New Jersey company that shipped bones, skin and tendons to tissue processors such as Regeneration Technologies Inc., LifeCell Corp. and Tutogen Medical Inc. About 10,000 people received tissue supplied by BTS. Those companies face hundreds of civil lawsuits from people who received the tissue in transplants and from the families of loved ones who had their body parts taken without permission. Prosecutors said Mastromarino’s actions posed a “grave risk” to transplant recipients, and he showed a “depraved indifference” by shipping body parts that came from people with cancer or other diseases. During a news conference, Galluci said the companies that accepted those parts should be prosecuted. He said they put pressure on his client to get more bodies and didn’t ask any questions. Mastromarino reached the plea deal earlier this year, but it nearly fell apart as prosecutors decided they wanted a trial. A judge nixed that plan, however, and scolded prosecutors for backing out of the deal. The three others charged in the BTS case were Chris Aldorasi, Joseph Nicelli and Lee Cruceta. Aldorasi, a cutter, is on trial in Brooklyn. Cruceta has pleaded guilty, and Nicelli, who suffered a head injury, has been removed from the case until he recovers. The harvesting tissue operation stretched across four states, including Pennsylvania, and involved about a half dozen funeral home directors, prosecutors said. Mastromarino will also plead guilty to related charges in Philadelphia, lawyer A. Charles Peruto Jr. said Tuesday. The plea will likely come on April 4, his scheduled trial date. “Now my job changes to one of making sure he doesn’t get additional time in Pennsylvania, and I think I’ll be successful,” Peruto said. “I don’t think the judge here is going to give him consecutive time.”
Leader in scheme to steal body parts gets 18-54 yrs. The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The mastermind behind a multimillion dollar scheme to loot hundreds of corpses and sell bone and tissue for transplants was sentenced Friday to 18 to 54 years in prison after apologizing to the grieving survivors. “I’m sorry for all the emotional pain I’ve caused,” Michael Mastromarino told a Brooklyn judge in a soft voice before being led to jail. Mastromarino, 44, a former oral surgeon who owned New Jerseybased Biomedical Tissue Services, pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of enterprise corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment. Prosecutors had alleged he was the brains behind a macabre plot hatched in 2001 to carve up bodies — including that of “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke — without permission and or proper medical screening. The body parts were sold around the country for dental implants, knee and hip r e p l a c e m e n t s and other procedures. Authorities say about 10,000 people received parts supplied by BTS Some now claim they were infected by the tainted tissue, including an Ohio mother of three who appeared in court on Friday to demand a harsh sentence for Mastromarino. “Mr. Mastromarino’s sick, disgusting, appalling actions, all in the name of greed, have devastated my family to the point where we can never recover,” said Danya Ryan, 44, who claims she contracted hepatitis during a back surgery involving BTS bone. Three others who worked with Mastromarino also were charged in the case, as were funeral home directors in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Chris Aldorasi, who worked as a so-called cutter for Mastromarino, was sentenced earlier this month to nine to 27 years in prison. At a trial where he was found guilty of enterprise corruption and other criminal counts, Cooke’s daughter testified that she had never spoken to BTS about harvesting her father’s body.
That is what happens when we show up to the snake oil salesman......at any cost......no faith in that......keep that to ourselves......there is only faith in truth.......dont just look for the outcome,,,,seek the way to it........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
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