Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Mastromarino, who ran a now-defunct company called Biomedical Tissue Services, is already facing charges in New York for allegedly plundering 1,077 bodies, including those from Philadelphia. Seven By The Associated Press. Hess initially called the whole affair a "legal travesty." In one such case, the donor was HIV-positive and suffered from hepatitis C and cancer. Find the indictment, photos, past coverage and more at http://go.philly.com/bodyparts EndText, By Troy Graham and Dwight Ott, Inquirer Staff Writers. Funeral directors Louis Garzone, 65, of Philadelphia; his younger brother, Gerald Garzone, 47, of North Wales; and James McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia; were arrested Thursday on thousands of . In 2003, the grand jury noted, an employee at a tissue- processing company described Mastromarino as "one of the leading procurers in the country," who was providing "a phenomenal amount of stuff. husband's body parts.". If you wish to speak to Mark McCafferty right away please call 215-531-5014 or 215-432-8339 (cell) or 267-978-8869 (cell). Mastromarino has been fighting the New York charges. The group also lowered the donors' ages and changed their dates of death to make it appear the body parts were more fresh, authorities said. Michael Mastromarino, who operated the now-defunct Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., ran the scheme with help from a team of "cutters" who stole the body parts, authorities said. what was going on," lawyer George Vomvolakis said. Frequently, they delivered cremated remains to families with the suggestion they were the remains of their relative when, in fact, they were not, according to the indictment. PHILADELPHIA (AP) - April 4, 2008 That term was cut short Sunday morning when Mastromarino, 49, died at a New York hospital. "They couldn't and wouldn't permit the dead to go to their graves with a shred of dignity," said District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham. 1748 W Erie Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19140. Discovery Company. McCafferty, 38, received significantly less time compared to his co-conspirators - brothers . Charges also were filed against Louis and Gerald Garzone's funeral homes and the crematorium, but not the McCafferty funeral home. South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life without parole in the fatal shootings of his wife, son. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. Former workers describe troubling practices at this mortuary. The Garzone brothers surrendered their state funeral licenses 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. As part of a plea agreement, eight other criminal charges against Ms. Hess were dropped. Hess had created a nonprofit organization in 2009 called Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation as a body-broker service doing business as Donor Services, authorities said. Three funeral directors sold 244 corpses for about $1,000 each to a New York businessman who trafficked in the resale of often-diseased body parts, a grand jury charged Thursday. Megan Hess admitted to selling body parts without permission of the families of the deceased. Mar 19, 2020 at 8:17 pm. The grand jury report said, though, that James Garzone is not the one in charge. Experts estimate that a single body can be worth $100,000 in parts, and the industry as a whole has topped $1 billion in revenue per year. A grand jury indictment said that from 2010 through 2018, Hess and Koch offered to cremate bodies and provide the remains to families at a cost of $1,000 or more, but many of the cremations never occurred. Lawyers for Ms. Hess did not immediately reply to requests for comment on Tuesday. alleged underlings, three funeral home operators from North Mastromarino plans to surrender Tuesday in Philadelphia and will fight the charges, his lawyer said. Funeral Home Operator Pleads Guilty in Illegal Body Part Scheme, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/05/us/colorado-funeral-home-owner-body-parts-guilty.html. A human head and spine sold for $850, while a full pelvis all the way to the toes priced out at $2,850. Dion Rassias, an attorney for the James A. McCafferty Funeral Home, at Frankford and Unruh Avenues in Mayfair, said James McCafferty Jr. was not a director at his mother's funeral home. A Colorado funeral home director accused of stealing and selling the body parts of hundreds of people has pleaded guilty to mail fraud. After Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Chaffin made his sentencing recommendation, the lawyer for Hess, Dan Shaffer, urged a lighter sentence of about two years in prison. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. "For one thing, cremations made it easier to deceive the next of kin.". Colorado funeral home owners sentenced to federal prison for selling body parts without families' permission Judge sentences Megan Hess to 20 years in prison and gives Shirley Koch a 15-year . for days, sometimes in alleys beside the funeral home, until a Colorado Funeral Home Director Sentenced to 20 Years in Jail for Illegally Selling Body Parts. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, All rights reserved. [1/2]Megan Hess, owner of Donor Services, is pictured during an interview in Montrose, Colorado, U.S., May 23, 2016 in this still image from video. together ran Garzone Funeral Home. A lawyer for Get ready!!!! They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials. The most expensive prices were for an upper torso that included a head and arms ($4,000) and the cost of an entire body was $5,000, according to the price list. The United States Attorney's Office for the District . Mastromarino's lead cutter, and faces a sentence of about 6 1/2 to The company sold the parts to treat burns, replace broken bones In other instances, the topic of donation was raised by Hess or Koch, and specifically rejected by the families. Megan Hess, 46, operated the Sunset Mesa funeral home in Montrose, Colorado, alongside a body-parts entity called Donor Services, where she undertook the grisly scheme, starting in 2010. According to NBC, Hess is scheduled to be sentenced in January. because there are bodies in Pennsylvania," Peruto said. GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes was sentenced to 20 years in prison . The cause was bone and brain cancer, said his attorney, Mario Gallucci. In fact, the grand jury said, the lack of oversight helped Mastromarino go undetected for years, and it recommended a raft of changes that state and federal overseers should make. "My husband was a World War II veteran of three years," said Updated Dozens of patients, including some from Philadelphia and New Jersey, said they contracted hepatitis C after getting a transplant. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. "My job is to make sure he doesn't do additional time just The department's position that Trump is not immune from suit was laid out in a filing before a federal appeals court. In such a growing industry, small, unaccredited outfits outnumber the accredited ones, experts said. FOR TRANSFERRING BODY ONLY. They want Michael Mastromarino to serve an additional 20 to 40 years in Philadelphia . Donate bone marrow for up to $3,000. transplant recipients suing tissue banks over the often-diseased Many families received ashes mixed with the remains of different cadavers, prosecutors said. of Philadelphia, and Gerald Garzone, 47, of North Wales, along with James McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia, provided the bodies to Michael Mastromarino and . By John Shiffman. This is the only funeral home my family has ever used. The funeral The pair charged customers $1,000 or more for cremations that never occurred. James E Fyfe Funeral Director. Her defense attorney has requested a lighter sentence of two years. Several funeral home operators in New York have also pleaded Despite surrendering their licenses, the two Garzone funeral homes have continued operating under the control of a third brother, James, who revived a dormant Pennsylvania funeral home director license. The black-market sales occurred from at least February 2004 through Respond: Write a letter to the editor | Write a guest opinion. She also offered free cremations in exchange for a body donation. charged Thursday after a 16-month investigation. A funeral home in Colorado has been investigated for cutting off body parts from its clients and selling them. "Both Louis and Gerald continue to run their businesses, pretty much as they did before," the report said. In 2009, Hess and her mother, Shirley Koch, launched a nonprofit donor services organization called Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation, a body-broker service operating out of the funeral home doing business that would sell body parts to third parties mostly for surgical training and other educational purposes. The funeral-home directors and their partners, two men who bought the tissue for resale, then falsified paperwork to make the "donors" appear healthy, the report said. Joe Amon / Denver Post via Getty Images file. The Associated Press. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department and a lawyer for Ms. Koch declined to comment on the plea agreement. Hess is tentatively set to be sentenced in January. While it is illegal to sell organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant in the United States,the sale of cadavers and body parts for use in research or education is not regulated by federal law. The funeral directors were in charge of getting consent. According to a report from the DOJ at the time of the arrests, Hess and Koch's mail scheme included shipping "bodies and body parts that tested positive for, or belonging to people who had died from, infectious diseases, including Hepatitis B and C, and HIV, after certifying to buyers that the remains were disease-free. The grand jury found that the three men collected more than $183,000 from those families and $84,000 more from welfare. Add to cart More. then sold to the tissue banks for dental implants, knee and hip According to authorities, they made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling off bodies . Auto Body Shops Auto Glass Repair Auto Parts Auto Repair Car Detailing Oil Change Roadside Assistance Tire Shops Towing Window Tinting. To increase sales, Hess targeted poor and vulnerable families as they grappled with a relative's final days, according to government court filings. A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison By The Associated Press January 4, 2023, 12:16 AM "I've yet to be shown a single shred of evidence that he knew Families of the dead had no idea the bodies were being ransacked. Burial vault. Most brokers who sell body parts offer to cremate part of the donor's body for free. The company sold the body parts to treat burns, replace broken bones and provide for other medical needs, the indictment said. Meeting with hospice on the 4th opening the floodgates of donors, Hess wrote to a prospective body-part buyer in 2014. Im taking responsibility.. Selling organs such as hearts, kidneys and tendons for transplant is illegal in the United States. The dispute will likely be left for Common Pleas Judge Glenn On other occasions, their request was rejected, and sometimes, they never brought up the topic at all. Hess has been free on bond since her arrest. do was come and harvest the tissue and send the samples down to the In fact, the mother-daughter team had been illegally selling hundreds of corpses intended for cremation out of the family funeral home in Montrose, Colorado for almost a decade. In Kensington, neighbors defended Louis Garzone. "Hess and Koch also delivered remains to families with the representation that the remains were that of the deceased when, frequently, that was not the case," it added. Gallagher scheduled Hess, who had previously pleaded not guilty, to be sentenced in January, with the prosecution calling for 12 to 15 years in prison. July 5 (Reuters) - A former Colorado funeral home owner pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a federal charge of defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting their family members' corpses and selling the body parts without permission, a practice exposed in a 2018 Reuters investigative report. The three funeral-home directors - Louis Garzone, 65; his brother Gerald Garzone, 47; and James A. McCafferty Jr., 37 - were accused of plundering 244 cadavers between February 2004 and September 2005. GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday by a federal court . Funeral directors Louis Garzone, 65, of Philadelphia; his The Sunset Mesa Funeral Home would charge $1,000 or more for cremation services, but often failed to carry out the work, authorities said. Ms. Hess and her mother sometimes obtained consent from families to donate small tissue samples or tumors of their dead relative, according to an indictment in the case. September 2005, prosecutors said. REUTERS/Mike Wood/File Photo. Louis Garzone's attorney, Howard Kaufman, said he had not seen the grand jury report and so could not comment on the charges. years in Philadelphia, where they say his team of cutters plundered Lee Cruceta, 35, of Monroe, N.Y., has admitted to being Mastromarino to plead guilty to just a few of the approximately appreciated. McCafferty Funeral Home opened up in December of 1970 and has had the honor to handle many high profile funerals including longtime Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas. The funeral directors were in charge of getting consent. Hatboro woman facing charges after racist rant at pizzeria, Eagles wide receiver assaulted, robbed at gunpoint in Maryland, Tom Sizemore dead at 61 after suffering brain aneurysm, Man missing since 2021 was murdered, co-worker arrested: DA, Do not to buy Raspberry Rally cookies from eBay, Girl Scouts say, Brian Laundrie was 'emotional bully,' Petito family lawsuit says, Pa. woman missing since 1992 found alive in Puerto Rico, Alex Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison; defense to appeal, Woman has gun held to her head during home invasion: Police, Temple faculty union could hold no-confidence vote on Monday, Pennsylvania lawmaker says he won't quit amid sex misconduct claim. Attorney Lynne Abraham said at a news conference. Theatre" host Alistair Cooke. So far, authorities have learned the true identities of only 48 of the 244 bodies, Abraham said. was not immediately clear if they had attorneys. Megan Hess and her mother Shirley Koch defrauded over 200 families by handing over random ashes while selling body parts of deceased individuals entrusted to their funeral home. Associated Press. Mastromarino is already facing charges in New York for allegedly The funeral directors forged death certificates that said the donors had died of heart attacks or blunt-force trauma but were otherwise healthy, prosecutors said. Mastromarino plans to surrender Tuesday and will fight the charges, his lawyer said. One Philadelphia woman who believes she contracted hepatitis from a tainted body part is pursuing a civil suit. "Despite receiving $1,959 per child from Stevie Wonder, Louis Garzone filed a welfare claim for $750 for each," the grand jury said. Michael Mastromarino, who operated the now-defunct Biomedical The Garzone brothers surrendered their state funeral licenses last year but continued to run their two homes, Abraham said. "No penalty is too harsh for these guys, for the just and hepatitis when they had actually tested positive, according to the authorities. Funeral directors Louis Garzone, 65, Gerald Garzone, 47, and James McCafferty, 37, were arrested Thursday on thousands of counts, ranging from running a corrupt organization to forgery and theft of body parts. funeral directors there have pleaded guilty, including one whose A Warner Bros. Michael Mastromarino, a businessman and former dentist, ran the scheme with help from a team of "cutters" who stole the body parts, authorities said. Indicted on similar counts were Brooklyn residents Mastromarino, who lost his oral surgery license amid unrelated drug charges, and Lee Cruceta, a former nurse who allegedly ran the cutting crew. They took remains without permission from 244 cadavers, an indictment says. "He was victimized by the funeral directors. Three funeral directors sold 244 corpses for about $1,000 each to a New York businessman who trafficked in the resale of often-diseased body parts, a grand jury charged Thursday. Brothers Louis and Gerald Garzone, along with James McCafferty, When the cheerleading coach broke the news to Katrina Kohel that she was the only one left on the cheer squad, Kohel was determined to compete anyway. woman who believes she contracted hepatitis from a tainted body However, it isn't clear whether what they were allegedly doing is illegal in any way . Two Colorado funeral home operators who sold body parts or bodies in a scheme a prosecutor called "horrific" were sentenced to prison Tuesday, officials said.. Megan Hess, 46, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and her mother, Shirley Koch, 69, was sentenced to 15 years, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado said in a statement. patients worldwide. is on trial in New York. team of "cutters" who stole the body parts, authorities said. So far, authorities have learned the true identities of only 48 of the 244 bodies, Abraham said. One of the cadavers was that of Alistair Cooke, the host of Masterpiece Theater, who died in 2004 of cancer. "There was no basis for us to take any action against James.". plea with New York prosecutors, he agreed to forfeit $4.68 million. The funeral directors forged death certificates that said the Mom Who Vanished While Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in 2018, Missouri Man Killed 4-Year-Old Girl by Beating, Dunking Her in Icy Pond as Part of 'Religious-Type Episode', Sherri Papini, Who Once Paid Off Credit Cards with Donations from Hoax, Now Owes $309,688 in Restitution, Socialite Mom Pleads Guilty to Secretly Filming Minors for 'Sexual Pleasure' in Her Conn. The three funeral-home directors - Louis Garzone, 65; his brother Gerald Garzone, 47; and James A. McCafferty Jr., 37 - were accused of plundering 244 cadavers between February 2004 and September 2005. Ms. Hess altered lab reports so that they said that people had tested negative for diseases like H.I.V. it was so dirty," Abraham said. Seven funeral directors in New York have pleaded guilty, including one whose funeral home allegedly removed parts from the body of the late "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke. Second plea in U.S. funeral home scheme to sell body parts. "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke. Those potentially dangerous body parts were sold and transplanted into thousands of patients. "Nobody knows the whole story," said Carmen Cologne, 47, who resides across the street. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mastromarino plans to surrender Tuesday in Philadelphia and will From 2010 through 2018, they would meet with people seeking cremation services either for themselves or their loved ones, according to the plea agreement. MONTROSE, Colo. When funeral directors Megan Hess and Shirley Koch were sentenced after admitting to illegally selling body parts from the Sunset Mesa . A mother and daughter who ran a Colorado funeral home have been arrested for selling body parts and even entire bodies without consent from grieving relatives, federal authorities said . Find 1 listings related to Mccafferty Funeral Home in Ambler on YP.com. Joseph, was plundered before his April 2004 cremation. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? The 244 bodies fetched about $1,000 each, the grand jury found, and skin from the corpses to be used in transplants, a grand jury In any case, the documents say, on hundreds of occasions the funeral home operators would sell heads, torsos, arms, legs or entire human bodies. In many instances, Koch and Hess neither discussed nor obtained authorization for donation of decedents bodies or body parts for body broker services, the news release said. Two morticians operating . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. "It seems like this in this case . One of the "cutters" who removed body parts told the grand jury that he once saw a body in the alley, covered with a blue "Astroturf-like material," a sparrow perched on the head. All he was supposed to do was come and harvest the tissue and send the samples down to the processors," defense lawyer Mario Gallucci said Thursday. Two funeral home operators in Colorado were sentenced Wednesday for illegally selling bodies and body parts without the families' consent, the US Attorney's Office said. Mastromarino will also testify, if necessary, against his But the sale of cadavers and body parts for use in research or education, which is what Hess did, is not regulated by federal law. "He was victimized by the funeral directors. July 8, 2022 - The owner of a Colorado funeral home has pleaded guilty to federal charges of mail fraud after the FBI uncovered an operation to sell body parts of deceased . The grand jury also charged Mastromarino and Lee Cruceta, a former nurse who allegedly ran the cutting crew, with similar counts. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Others were "riddled with infections.". Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Megan Hess, 46, was sentenced Tuesday at a hearing in Grand Junction, Colorado for dissecting 560 . All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. Few state laws provide any regulation, and almost anyone, regardless of expertise, can dissect and sell human body parts. "We, by law, had to grant [James Garzone] his license," said Basil Merenda, commissioner of the state Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs. Of the 244 bodies here, he changed the names on all but 48. Much of the work took place at the Louis Garzone Funeral Home, at Somerset and Jasper Streets in Kensington, where bodies were left on gurneys in a dingy alley behind the building, the grand jury said. Thanks for contacting us. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. "This was not a coincidence," the grand jury said. Updated: 7:04 PM MST January 5, 2023. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Deli worker killed in apparent robbery on Upper East Side, Lori Lightfoot lost for failing Chicago not because voters are racist/sexist, Investigators want to exhume body of Alex Murdaughs dead housekeeper, Accused pedophile mayor called Pete Buttigieg his buddy and mentor, paid to have their late loved ones cremated. The parts could have been transplanted into as many as 13,000 patients, the Food and Drug Administration estimated. The parts - bones, skin, tendons and spines - were taken from the deceased without family permission, in unsanitary conditions that one witness likened to a "butcher shop.". $1,300. Still, the authorities said, families typically paid $1,000 or more for a cremation that often never occurred. The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services, authorities said. This is the cost to purchase a burial vault from the funeral home. Hundreds of patient lawsuits have been filed in federal court in New Jersey and state courts around the country. 1:59 PM EST, Thu January 5, 2023. Expand. A burial vault is required for most cemeteries, but you may choose to purchase one online or elsewhere, if you'd wish. Folger, who brought a small U.S. flag to the court hearing. corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment. McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia; were arrested Thursday on Mastromarino often filled in phony information on death Megan Hess faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal mail fraud. In Philadelphia, most of the bodies were scheduled for cremation Mechafanboy said: There's a case in little India a few years back. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. So far, authorities have All Rights Reserved. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. The funeral directors forged death certificates that said the donors had died of heart attacks or blunt-force trauma but were otherwise healthy, prosecutors said. Mastromarino pleaded guilty to 14 counts that include enterprise One national law firm has clients who were patients at Temple, Hahnemann, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein Hospitals in Philadelphia, Holy Redeemer Hospital in Montgomery County, and Shore Memorial Hospital and AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in New Jersey. In 2022 Ken Matthews was ranked #70 of the 100 most important Talk Radio Show Hosts in America by the radio industry's TALKERS magazine. Legal Statement. Instead of cremating the bodies, court records show, her body broker company harvested heads, spines, arms and legs and then sold them, mostly for surgical training and other educational purposes. A former employee accused her of earning$40,000 by extracting and selling the gold teeth of some of the deceased as part of the macabre scheme, according to court documents. Megan Hess, who operated a funeral home called Sunset Mesa and a human body parts business called Donor Services from the same building, entered the plea to the charge of fraud at a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gordon Gallagher in Grand Junction, Colorado. said. plundering 1,077 bodies, including those from Philadelphia. (Reuters) -A former Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 corpses and selling body parts without permission. Louis Garzone, 65, of Philadelphia, Gerald Garzone, 47, of North The scheme included forging paperwork, such as signatures on authorization forms for donating body parts, and misleading buyers about the results of medical tests performed on the deceased, court documents said. MONTROSE, Colo. Two operators of a western Colorado funeral home were sentenced to federal prison Tuesday after being accused of illegally selling the bodies or body parts of hundreds of . The two men were expected to surrender to Philadelphia authorities this week. The grand jury said five Philadelphia and 41 Pennsylvania hospitals implanted parts that originated with Mastromarino's operation. During the hearing, the judge asked Hess to describe in her own words the crimes she committed. The founder of that company, Michael Mastromarino, a dentist stripped of his license for drug offenses, and his partner, Lee Cruceta, also were charged yesterday. Flowers. Add to Wishlist . Prosecutors recommended a sentence for Hess of 12 to 15 years. Chopped into pieces, thrown into luggage; one of the accomplices chose to dump the luggage in little India. In court documents, a former employee accused Hess of earning $40,000 by extracting and selling the gold teeth of some of the deceased, an allegation first revealed in the 2018 Reuters report. But prosecutors here are balking at any 2-for-1 deal. While the women sometimes received consent from families "to donate small tissue samples or tumors of their dead relatives," the New York Times reported that the pair supplied body parts for research even when families were never asked for their approval or rejected the request in advance. Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. The Reuters series uncovered the actions of Sunset Mesa and Donor Services. An attorney for Gerald Garzone did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Dr Desena Dominican Republic Deaths,
Peter Malnati Parents,
Articles M