Nurse admits stealing body parts, forging papers
A nurse in Philadelphia has admitted that he removed body parts from 244 corpses and then helped forge the paperwork that would allow those parts to be transplanted.
Philadelphia authorities say Lee Cruceta was involved in a group that provided more than 1,000 stolen body parts for black market transplants, Fox News reports. The 35-year-old Cruceta pleaded guilty to conspiracy, taking part in a corrupt organization, abuse of a corpse, and 244 counts each of theft and forgery. He also pleaded guilty to related charges in New York and negotiated pleas to serve concurrent sentences of 6½ to 20 years, Fox News reports.
Authorities say Cruceta is expected to testify against the other defendants, so he won't be formally sentenced until those cases are resolved. In other cases related to the theft ring, several funeral directors have pleaded guilty in New York, and a former oral surgeon, the accused ringleader Michael Mastromarino, 44, is being held in the case. Three funeral directors in Philadelphia have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Bruce Sagel, JD, Philadelphia assistant district attorney, said in court recently that Mastromarino is expected to plead guilty. His lawyer, Mario Gallucci, JD, of Philadelphia, told The Associated Press that as part of his plea arrangement, Mastromarino plans to tell prosecutors about the companies that bought the stolen specimens. Once those companies are known, the scope of the case could grow exponentially, as the companies are charged and the parts are traced to individual patients who received them, who may in turn sue the companies and the health care providers.
Mastromarino paid funeral directors $1,000 per corpse, the district attorney says, and then sold the parts to tissue banks. Court documents indicate that the stolen body parts were sold to tissue banks for up to $10,000 each. The tissue banks resold them to hospitals for much more.
Prosecutors say Cruceta was part of several teams of "cutters" employed by Mastromarino. The ringleader made between $6 million and $12 million from the operation since 2001, they say. Some of the stolen body parts were diseased, and none were tested properly before being sold to tissue banks, court documents show. A grand jury in Philadelphia recently found that the body parts ring forged death certificates to hide diseases such as cancer and AIDS and lowered the ages of the deceased to make the stolen specimens more desirable.
Cruceta told the court that he was already earning more than $100,000 a year working two jobs when he agreed to work with Mastromarino. The nurse said he thought he had been hired by a legitimate tissue bank. He refused to say when he realized something was wrong. Cruceta previously had worked as a surgical nurse manager and at a tissue bank.
Court documents indicate the body parts were used in disk replacements, knee operations, dental implants, and other surgical procedures performed by unsuspecting doctors across the United States and in Canada. About 10,000 people received tissue supplied by Biomedical Tissue Services, Mastromarino's company, which sold the tissue to other tissue banks and to health providers, prosecutors say.
A nurse in Philadelphia has admitted that he removed body parts from 244 corpses and then helped forge the paperwork that would allow those parts to be transplanted.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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