Community | May 15, 2009 | 6 comments

Man faces jail in $1.5 million body parts scheme

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30757528/

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ClipsFC
A man was convicted Thursday of carving up cadavers donated to UCLA's medical school and selling the parts to unsuspecting medical research companies in a $1.5 million scheme.

Jurors found Ernest Nelson, 51, guilty of eight counts, including grand theft and tax evasion. Prosecutors said Nelson could face a maximum of 12 years in prison and they want him to repay $1.5 million to UCLA.

Nelson "was willing to go into a willed body program and cut up body parts for his own personal financial gain," prosecutor Marisa Zarate said after the verdict.

Defense attorney Sean McDonald said he was disappointed by the verdict and left court without further comment.

Prosecutors said Nelson and Henry Reid, the former director of UCLA's Willed Body Program, devised the scam in 1999.

Nelson, who ran a business transporting body parts to hospitals and medical research firms, has said he thought the sales were authorized by the university.

Prosecutors said he bought the donated torsos, cut them up and kept them frozen in a rented warehouse until they were sold to companies that didn't know they had been improperly obtained.

Nelson, of Rancho Cucamonga, used cashier's checks to pay Reid a total of $43,000 in 1999, Zarate said. Other payments were made in cash and weren't documented, she said.

The plan unraveled after a state health investigator became concerned about a sale in 2003 and contacted UCLA.
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6 comments // Man faces jail in $1.5 million body parts scheme

  • ozoneocean
    • 0
      ozoneocean  

    • It sounds bad but all he's really guilty off is theft and fraud. -Those body parts were donated to start with! he's not stealing from graves and coffins. The true ghoulish aspect of the story is the research companies that pay for the bits. Can you imagine going to work at a cosmetics company every day and doing experiments with dismembered human feet and torsos? That's the sort of thing that happens. Still, it sounds better than animal testing.

    • 3 years ago
  • The_Martini_man
  • betruelarue
    • 0
      betruelarue  

    • Greed is a nasty sickness. Throw the book at him, and the former director. I personally want to bee cremated for weird reasons like this. I know when you are dead, your'e gone, but shouldn't respect for someone's wishes (giving their remains to science) be treated with the utmost respect?

    • 3 years ago
  • ClipsFC
  • ClipsFC
  • BenDorries
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