Dentist apologizes for stealing body parts

Dentist apologizes for stealing body parts

June 13, 2008 -- A former New Jersey dentist who pleaded guilty in March to stealing body parts from more than 1,000 corpses faced the victims' relatives in court, reported ABC News.

Michael Mastromarino, 44, was the leader of a $4.6 million operation that operated in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, stealing body parts from funeral homes and selling them to doctors for transplants.

As part of the scheme, a team of "cutters" removed bones, skin, and tendons in an unsanitary embalming room, according to prosecutors. Some patients underwent periodontal surgery using tissue and bone implants from the cadavers.

One of the corpses was that of famous British journalist Alistair Cooke.

Mastromarino at one time had a "thriving" dental practice off Fifth Avenue in New York City, according to a Washington Post article from 2006, when the story first broke. But drug abuse and malpractice lawsuits forced him to surrender his license in 2000. He then founded Biomedical Tissue Services, a tissue recovery business.

"I am truly sorry for the pain that I have caused," Mastromarino told the victims, according to ABC News. "May God have mercy on my soul."

He faces 18 to 54 years in prison.