Prosecution of Body Parts Snatchers Moving Ahead

Jack Landskroner

Contributor

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For those recipients of allograft tissue transplants taken illegally from cadavers in NY and NJ, you'll be happy to learn that one of the target criminal defendants has apparently entered into an agreement to cooperate in the investigation and prosecution of the other defendants including the alleged mastermind behind the scam, Michael Mastromarino.

Mastromarino and three other defendants pleaded not guilty in February to charges including body stealing, unlawful dissection and forgery.

The ring allegedly removed parts from hundreds of bodies from funeral parlors in New York, Rochester, Philadelphia and New Jersey. Authorities said Mastromarino had made millions selling the parts to biomedical supply companies.

The criminal prosecution moves forward in NY at the same time that the civil claims progress in Federal court in New Jersey against the biomedical supply companies, addressing the damages and need for future medical monitoring of tissue recipients for disease arising from the tissue as referenced in my August 2, 2006 post.