Nurse ‘lead cutter’ in stolen body parts trade
Authorities say nurse Lee Cruceta was the lead cutter in a group that trafficked in more than 1,000 stolen body parts for the lucrative transplant market.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy, taking part in a corrupt organisation, abuse of a corpse and 244 counts each of theft and forgery.
Cruceta, aged 35, has also pleaded guilty to related charges in New York and negotiated pleas to serve concurrent sentences of six to 20 years.
He is expected to testify against the other defendants, and will not be formally sentenced until those cases are resolved.
The accused ringleader, Michael Mastromarino, aged 44, is being held in the case. Several funeral directors have pleaded guilty in New York, while three funeral directors in Philadelphia have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Assistant Philadelphia District Attorney Bruce Sagel told a judge that Mastromarino also is expected to plead guilty. The timing of his plea was uncertain.
His lawyer Mario Gallucci earlier said Mastromarino plans to tell prosecutors about the companies that bought the stolen specimens.
Mastromarino, a former oral surgeon, paid funeral directors $1,000 per corpse, then sold the parts to tissue banks. The body parts fetched up to $10,000 apiece, though the tissue banks resold them to hospitals for many times that amount, said Sagel.
Prosecutors believe Mastromarino, employing several teams of cutters, took in $6 million to $12m since 2001.
“I think the concern is Lee Cruceta has been placed, in some ways, on an even footing with Mr Mastromarino, who has millions of dollars,” said defence lawyer Mary Maran.
Cruceta, speaking after the hearing, said he was already earning more than $100,000 a year working two jobs when he signed on with Mastromarino, thinking his Biomedical Tissue Services was a legitimate company. Asked when he realised things were amiss, he declined to comment.
“We were a normal family. We had a normal life,” said his wife Theresa Cruceta, standing with their three young children. “We lost everything.”
She had lost her hospital administration job in New York city in the downturn that followed the September 11 attacks. Cruceta had worked as a surgical nurse manager and at a tissue bank, but said he thought he could ultimately earn more working for Mastromarino.
The body parts were used in disc 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.
Among the bodies looted was that of BBC contributor Alistair Cooke.
A grand jury in Philadelphia found that death certificates were forged to hide diseases such as cancer and AIDS and lower the ages of the deceased, making the stolen specimens more desirable.
A flood of civil lawsuits are expected on behalf of the transplant recipients.
