DA: Alleged body part harvests were 'medical terrorism'

BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO | NEWSDAY STAFF WRITER

February 24, 2006

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In a case officials labeled "medical terrorism," four men were arraigned Thursday on charges they illegally scavenged and defiled human corpses for body parts later used in transplant procedures.

A massive 122-count indictment by a Brooklyn grand jury accused former New Jersey dentist Michael Mastromarino of being the ringleader in a scheme in which more than 1,000 bodies sent to funeral homes were allegedly cut open illegally for bones, ligaments and other tissues that wound up in hospitals around the country.

"It's unique in its utter disregard for human decency," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said about the alleged multimillion-dollar scheme at a news conference Thursday announcing the unsealing of the indictment.

"All of us have lost a loved one. Imagine in the aftermath of your grief ... that parts were taken from his or her body," said Hynes.

Hynes said that in many cases, the defendants in the case falsified records to hide the true ages and medical conditions of their deceased victims so that tissues could be harvested and accepted for transplantation without questions being raised.

The indictment capped a nine-month investigation that focused on Mastromarino's companies, BioMedical Tissue Services and BioTissue Technologies, both headquartered in Fort Lee, N.J. Indicted along with Mastromarino, 42, were funeral director Joseph Nicelli, 50, of Staten Island, and Lee Crucetta, 33, a nurse, and Christopher Aldorasi, 32, both of Brooklyn.

As spelled out in the indictment and described by Hynes, the alleged scheme involved Nicelli receiving requests from area funeral homes to pick up bodies for normal embalming and funeral preparations. But at his former business, Daniel George & Son Funeral Home on Bath Avenue in Bensonhurst , Nicelli allowed Mastromarino, Crucetta and Aldorasi to harvest bones and tissues from the deceased, said Hynes.

In more than 1,077 cases examined by investigators by his office and the city Department of Investigation, only one family consented to tissue donation, said Hynes.

One case involved former "Masterpiece Theatre" host and British TV personality Alistair Cooke, said Hynes. Though Cooke died at age 95 of lung cancer, records were falsified to show he died at 85 from a heart attack, said Hynes.

Surrounded by a macabre display of autopsy X-rays, Hynes and his staffers described how bones harvested from dead bodies were crudely replaced by PVC piping commonly used for plumbing. Sometimes whole leg bones were taken and the corpse's feet screwed onto the pipes, Hynes noted. Reporters perused autopsy photos taken after several exhumations that showed the pipes inside the legs of decomposed corpses.

Aside from his normal embalming fees, Nicelli received $500 to $1,000 each time he allowed Mastromarino or his employers to harvest tissues, said Hynes. Mastromarino sometimes got as much as $7,000 from licensed tissue banks for the tissues, investigators said.

But Hynes stressed that evidence so far showed that no area funeral directors were involved in Nicelli's alleged dealings.

At the Daniel George & Son Funeral Home, police discovered a special operating room that was used for the human harvesting and started a probe "that would shake the funeral industry to its core," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

At arraignments late Thursday, all of the defendants entered not guilty pleas.

"This is nothing short of a case of medical terrorism," Executive Assistant District Attorney Michael Vecchione told Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge John Walsh.

Attorney Richard Medina, who is representing Nicelli, called Vecchione's remark "outrageous." Medina said the prosecutor didn't have what it takes to make a case.

Walsh set bail at $1.5 million for Mastromarino, $250,000 for Nicelli and $500,000 for Trucetta and Alderossi. Attorneys expected their clients to post those amounts. They face maximum 25-year prison terms if convicted.