Brooklyn, June 27, 2008 – Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today announced the sentencing of Michael Mastromarino, mastermind behind a multi-million dollar human tissue theft conspiracy.

             In accordance with a March 18 guilty plea, Mastromarino was sentenced today to 18 to 54 years in prison.

             Mastromarino, 44, Joseph Nicelli, 52, Lee Cruceta, 35, and Christopher Aldorasi, 36, were all charged in February 2006, in a 122-count indictment, with orchestrating a large-scale, criminal enterprise, in which tissues were harvested from people who never consented before they died, to be donors. Those tissues were then sold to medical companies for use in surgical transplants, such as bone and skin grafts.

             Aldorasi was sentenced earlier this month to nine to 27 years in prison. Nicelli's and Cruceta's cases are still pending.

             The cases are being prosecuted by Rackets Division Bureau Chief Patricia McNeil, Deputy Bureau Chief Josh Hanshaft, Rackets Division First Deputy Bureau Chief Michael Perkins and Chief Counsel to the Rackets Division Monique Ferrell. Michael Vecchione is Chief of the Rackets Division.

Brooklyn, June 18, 2008 – Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today announced the sentencing of Christopher Aldorasi, 36, to nine to 27 years in prison, before Justice Albert Tomei.  He was convicted on April 28, on 20 of the 22 counts he was charged with, in a multi-million dollar human tissue theft conspiracy. 

            Aldorasi was convicted on the top charge of Enterprise Corruption, a Class-B Felony. Other charges Aldorasi was convicted of included Falsification of Business Records in the First Degree, Grand Larceny in the Third Degree and Reckless Endangerment in the Second Degree. 

            Aldorasi and four codefendants, Michael Mastromarino, 44; Joseph Nicelli, 52; and Lee Cruceta, 35, were all charged in February 2006, in a 122-count indictment, with orchestrating a large-scale, criminal enterprise, in which tissues were harvested from people who either never consented before they died, to be donors, or whose medical conditions or ages would have prevented them from donating tissue. Those tissues were then sold to medical companies for use in surgical transplants, such as bone and skin grafts. 

            Mastromarino pleaded guilty in March and will be sentenced June 27, to 18 to 54 years in prison. Cruceta pleaded guilty and testified against Aldorasi. He will be sentenced at a later date. Nicelli's case is still pending.           

The cases were prosecuted by Rackets Division Bureau Chief Patricia McNeil, Deputy Bureau Chief Josh Hanshaft, Rackets Division First Deputy Bureau Chief Michael Perkins and Chief Counsel to the Rackets Division Monique Ferrell. Michael Vecchione is Chief of the Rackets Division.  

June 13, 2008 --

Admitted body-parts harvester Michael Mastromarino heard yesterday from the enraged victims of his anatomical chop-shop, but dodged formal sentencing to an 18- to 54-year jail term because of a paperwork glitch.

"It's horrible what they did. I'll never be the same," cried Donna Gage, 36, whose mother, Georgia Beaton, was butchered by Mastromarino and his crew at a mortuary in Rochester.

"We were hoping that she could finally find peace. And she didn't.

"I hate myself every day for picking the funeral home."

Anthony Dumaine, whose father, Thomas, a wounded World War II veteran, was carved up, scoffed at Mastromarino's contention he was helping people by increasing the supply of bone and ligament available for grafts and transplants.

"Did you think you were helping me, his only son, by breaking my final promise that he would be laid out and buried with dignity?" asked Dumaine.

"I will forever know that I was unable to keep that solemn promise because you wanted to make more money."

Dumaine then told Mastromarino:

"You are a butcher of lifeless bodies and you deserve to spend every day of 54 years in a jail cell. Only then will justice be served."

Mastromarino, 44, offered an apology that left most of the victims cold.

"I'd just like to take the opportunity to apologize for the pain and grief I've caused to the donor families and the donor recipients," he said.

"God have mercy on my soul."

Stephanie Berardini, 36, of Denver, who received dental implants made from possibly diseased bone, said the apology didn't strike a chord.

"It didn't strike anything at all," she said. "It wasn't heartfelt. I'm sorry I wasn't able to see him sentenced."

Mastromarino was set to receive a negotiated 18-to-54-year sentence after having pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors, but an incomplete pre-sentence report put off formal sentencing until June 27.

But rather than turn away the scores of victims, many of whom traveled to the sentencing, Justice John Walsh allowed the heart-wrenching victim-impact statements.

Mastromarino's lawyer, Mario Gallucci, said the statements had a profound effect on his client.

"My client, today, after hearing from the victims, fully recognizes the effect he had on them," Gallucci said.

"He certainly did not intend on doing what he did. He is truly apologetic and he set forth to do this in a legitimate way, to help people, and unfortunately it ended in a way that it did not."

Mastromarino was the admitted ringleader of a group that harvested bone, tendon, heart valves and other body parts from more than a 1,000 corpses in funeral homes in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Rochester.

Three other men were charged in the multimillion-dollar operation. Chris Aldorasi, 36, a "cutter," is awaiting sentence after being convicted after trial.

Fellow cutter Lee Cruceta, 35, pleaded guilty and testified against Aldorasi in exchange for an 81/3-to-25-year sentence.

The case against Joseph Nicelli, 52, the owner of the Daniel George & Son Funeral Home in Brooklyn, where much of the illegal harvesting was conducted, has been delayed due to injuries he suffered in a fall at a Jersey City, NJ, construction site.

alex.ginsberg@nypost.com

NEW YORK (AP) — The mastermind behind a multimillion-dollar scheme to loot hundreds of corpses and sell their body parts apologized Thursday to families of the victims and thousands of tissue recipients.

Michael Mastromarino, a former oral surgeon who owned Biomedical Tissue Services, told victims of the scheme he was sorry for the pain and grief he caused. The New Jersey company shipped bones, skin and tendons to tissue processors.

Mastromarino was in court for a sentencing hearing but the sentencing was postponed because the probation report wasn't finished. He is to be sentenced later this month.

Victims of the scheme called Mastromarino "greedy" and "heartless" and asked that he be sentenced to the maximum 54 years.

Stephanie Berardini of Denver, who received dental implants from a body that hadn't been properly screened for disease, said the tissue and bone will "forever be a part of me."

"The disgust factor is enormous," she said. "I will never be the same because of his actions."

Anthony Dumaine of Brooklyn, whose father's body was plundered, questioned the sincerity of Mastromarino's apology. "I don't feel like that was from his heart," Dumaine said outside the courtroom.

In March, Mastromarino admitted he ran the macabre operation from 2001 to 2005. He pleaded guilty to charges of enterprise corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment.

Three others who worked at Mastromarino's medical firm were charged, as were funeral home directors in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The bodies, including that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, were carved up without permission and were not medically screened. They were sold around the country for dental implants, knee and hip replacements and other procedures. About 10,000 people received tissue supplied by BTS.

After the hearing, Mario Gallucci, Mastromarino's lawyer, said his client felt the "full force and effect of what he did" after listening to victims speak.

Fuck you Gallucci....back in 2007 when I did a story for the AP your words were "this woman should be thankful" for the tainted bone grafts I got.  I hope your client rots in jail you sick fuck

March 19, 2008 08:59am

A FORMER dentist charged with stealing body parts from more than 1000 corpses pleaded guilty in a New York court today, in a case that will likely see him sentenced to at least 18 years in jail.

Michael Mastromarino stands charged with illegally harvesting organs, body parts and tissue from the bodies of people who never consented to be donors, including veteran BBC broadcaster Alistair Cooke.

Mastromarino, 44, whose company sold the human tissue for medical implants, pleaded guilty under the terms of a plea deal that would see him facing 18 to 54 years in jail instead of a life term.

"He recognises that what he did was wrong and he admitted that in court today," said his lawyer, Mario Gallucci.

But he blamed the companies that bought the tissue for pressuring his client into doing what he did.

"He started a legitimate business. He recognised that there was a need for tissues from dead bodies because of major advances in medicine," he said.

"The problem is that things began to go wrong because he was put under a lot of pressure by the processors in this case to get them more and more tissue and as the demand for tissue increased, you know, he began to cut corners.

"Unfortunately it’s not legal to do that."

Mastromarino, who was charged in 2006 along with three other defendants, allegedly made millions of dollars selling the unscreened body tissue, in a ghoulish case compared by prosecutors to "a cheap horror movie".

The four face charges including enterprise corruption, body stealing and opening graves, as well as unlawful dissection.

One of Mastromarino’s co-defendants has pleaded guilty, another is on trial while the third is not being actively pursued on medical grounds.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes described in detail at the time the four were charged how they allegedly replaced the bones of their victims with lengths of piping to avoid arousing suspicion at the victims’ funerals.

According to the indictment, the team forged death certificates and donor consent forms to create the appearance that the tissue was harvested legally.

Though transplant guidelines set age limits and health requirements for donors, the defendants falsified the records.

In the case of Cooke, who was 95 when he died in New York in 2004 from lung cancer, the stolen body parts were listed as coming from a healthy 85-year-old who died of heart failure.

The accused tossed gloves, aprons, and other incriminating evidence into the bodies before sewing them back up, according to prosecutors.

"What happened here ... is like something out of a cheap horror movie," prosecutors said at the time.

"But for the thousands of relatives of the deceased whose body parts were used for profit, and the recipients of the suspect parts, this was no bad movie. This was for real."

According to prosecutors, the defendants allegedly harvested bones and organs from 1077 corpses over a five-year period and then sold them on to transplant companies for use in surgical procedures around the world.

Under the terms of the plea deal, Mastromarino was expected to co-operate with prosecutors in any further investigations against the companies that bought the stolen body parts.

On the open market, one body can bring in as much as $US250,000 ($271,532) for harvesting and transplant companies, according to prosecutors.

Mastromarino is due to be sentenced on May 21.

By ALEX GINSBERG

December 4, 2007 -- The former owner of the Brooklyn funeral home where prosecutors claim a ring of organ thieves harvested bones and tissue from cadavers is unfit to stand trial with his co-defendants, a judge ruled yesterday.

Justice John Walsh separated former Daniel George & Son Funeral Home owner Joseph Nicelli's case from his alleged cohorts' after a serious fall at a Jersey City construction site left him with severe brain injuries.

Michael Mastromarino, Lee Crucetta and Christopher Aldorasi are expected to stand trial on Jan. 8.

Not sure how I feel about this, actually.  The scumbag is GUILTY. but apparantly his injuries will fuck him up the rest of his life....GOOD

Guess I DO know how I feel about him after all.  I hope the medical bills bankrupt him

AP

November 16, 2007 -- The cases of five defendants accused in a scheme to remove body parts from corpses bought from dozens of funeral directors in New York for use in surgeries will go to court in Philadelphia following their arraignments.

Funeral directors Louis Garzone, 65, of Philadelphia, Gerald Garzone, 47, of North Wales, Pa., and James McCafferty, 37, of Philadelphia, appeared before Trial Commissioner Russell Joell for the Wednesday arraignments.

Michael Mastromarino, operator of now-defunct Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., is being held in lieu of $5 million bail, and Lee Cruceta, a former nurse, is being held on $1.5 million bail.

A grand jury presentment said Mastromarino paid the Garzones and McCafferty $1,000 each for 244 bodies from which parts were removed without family consent. Joell scheduled a Dec. 10 pretrial conference where a judge will consider trial scheduling and procedural issues.