ROCHESTER
Theft of body parts blamed on deception
ROCHESTER (AP) — A former funeral director testified Monday that an unscrupulous biomedical company owner had duped him into removing body parts without permission from 23 corpses.
Jason Gano, 32, is the first of seven people to stand trial in Rochester on charges of illegally taking skin, bone and other parts from bodies being prepared for cremation in four funeral homes.
Michael Mastromarino, who masterminded the scheme as owner of Biomedical Tissue Services, based in Fort Lee, N. J., sent Gano forged documents indicating relatives had given their consent, defense lawyer Adrian Burke said in his opening statement.
But prosecutor Jennifer Whitman countered that Gano systematically allowed Mastromarino’s employees to loot bodies without permission.
