This is rather disturbing:
The chief “cutter” in the national body-parts scandal – in charge of removing the often-diseased tissue of 244 late Philadelphians – is trying to cooperate with authorities, but “they don’t believe him,” his attorney said last night.
About 2 p.m. yesterday, New York attorney George Vomvolakis said he and his client, Lee Cruceta, 34, of Monroe, N.Y., talked with Assistant District Attorney Bruce Sagel and detectives for two hours, before Cruceta was processed by police.
“We’re still talking to the prosecutor and trying to cooperate, but they don’t believe him,” said Vomvolakis. “I’ve had two other sessions like this in the past. I was hoping that would prevent an arrest.”
Vomvolakis described the conversations as “informational.”
Cruceta surrendered shortly after his ex-boss, Michael Mastromarino, 44, of Fort Lee, N.J., the reputed ringleader of the body-parts scandal and the owner of the now-closed Biomedical Tissue Services, in Fort Lee.
In 2004, Mastromarino arranged to buy tissue from three Philadelphia funeral-home operators who supplied the 244 corpses – without survivors’ consent – during an 18-month period, a grand jury found last Thursday. BTS paid the operators $245,995.
BTS then sold the tissue to five companies that processed it for hospitals, where surgeons unwittingly used it for implants.
Yesterday, Mastromarino appeared “resigned” to the charges, while Cruceta, described as BTS team leader of “cutters,” looked “shook up” when each showed up separately to face charges, according to the DA’s office.
I distinctly remember watching an episode of Bones in which this was the case. Not sure whether the show was based on this story or if it was just a coincidence.