More Funeral Directors and Others Charged for Body Part Thefts

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May 18th, 2007

"Body Part Thefts"

Three Rochester, New York-area funeral home directors are among the seven individuals charged this week with body stealing, unlawful dissection, and other counts related to the illegal removal of skin, bone, and other body parts from corpses. Jason Gano, 31, the former funeral director of Thomas E. Burger Funeral Home in Hilton, Serrell Gayton, 59, the director of Serenity Hills Funeral Chapel in Rochester, and Scott Batjer, 37, the director of Profetta Funeral Chapel in Webster were charged, as were four employees of a company that supplied body tissue for thousands of medical procedures performed across the U.S. such as dental implants and hip replacements.

Thousands of Tainted Tissue Samples

The four were employees of Biomedical Tissue Services, a now-defunct company based in Fort Lee, New Jersey that was already the focus of Monroe County prosecutors. Its owner, former dentist Michael Mastromarino, was charged in 2006 with removing body tissue samples from more than 1,000 corpses without the permission of the deceased or their families. He and others are also alleged to have falsified consent forms and lied about the ages and health conditions of the corpses. They apparently took the tissue samples and in some cases returned corpses to funeral homes with PVC pipe replacing bones that had been removed.

The new indictment contends that Biomedical Tissue Services employees Kevin Vickers, 53; Darlene Deats, 46; Kirssy Knapp, 29; and Nicholas Sloyer, 34, illegally took bone and tissue from more than 30 corpses in 2005 without the proper consent.

Lengthy Prison Sentences Are Possible Sentence

The most serious of the body theft charges carry maximum 20-year prison sentences. As Monroe County District Attorney Michael Green noted, "Put yourself in the position of one of the family members…what we've heard from them is that this is just absolutely devastating."

(Source: Forbes)

Do you suspect that you have been victimized by body part theft? Contact an experienced attorney today to discuss your legal rights.