In the old days, Jeremy Pauley of Thompson, 42, would have been called a “grave digger” or “body snatcher.”
However, the harvester of Harvard Medical School’s cadavers preferred “oddity collector,” thank you very much.
Now, despite an extensive illegal operation in trafficking body parts, Pauley was spared any jail time by federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Thompson will serve two years of probation after pleading guilty last year to conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property.
The prosecutors dropped charges for dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and receiving stolen property.
According to the Justice Department, Pauley “admitted to his role in a nationwide network of individuals who bought and sold human remains.” His macabre business involved buying body parts from cadavers donated for medical research before their scheduled cremations. His inside source was Cedric Lodge, who managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School.
Lodge allegedly ran a type of cadaver market in which he would allow customers to come into the morgue and pick out parts they wanted. Harvard insists that it was entirely unaware of the operation and has condemned the conduct of all those involved.
Pauley had other alleged sources like Candace Chapman Scott, an employee at a Little Rock mortuary. Scott even used Facebook Messenger to send pictures of her inventory including a brain and the heart.
When police went to his house, Pauley told officers that collected “oddities” and that he had 15 to 20 human skulls he had legally purchased in his possession. Later the police returned with a search warrant and found three five-gallon buckets filled with human remains.
The FBI has since arrested three other individuals who allegedly trafficked stolen body parts, including Lodge, Lodge’s wife Denise Lodge, Katrina Maclean of Salem, Massachusetts, and Joshua Taylor of Pennsylvania.
Denise Lodge pleaded guilty to the interstate transport of stolen human remains and faces 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Yet, the “oddities collector” will not go to jail under this plea.
Likewise, Harvard will not be held accountable. Last month, Judge Kenneth W. Salinger dismissed the claims against Harvard and Anatomical Gift Program managers Mark F. Cicchetti and Tracey Fay, citing their immunity under Massachusetts’ Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA).
In the opinion below, Salinger found that Harvard was protected under the Massachusetts Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. That Act includes a “good faith clause” in the agreement for body donations that excuses even negligence.
A person who acts in accordance with thischapter . . . or who attempts in good faith to do so, shall not be liable for the act in a civil action, criminal prosecution or administrative proceeding.
GL.. c.113A,§18(a).
Salinger held that:
“It follows that a plaintiff cannot overcome the qualified immunity of someone who received a lawful anatomical gift by showing that the recipient was negligent in handling the gift, because a showing of negligence would not demonstrate an absence of good faith.”
So Harvard walks and the “oddities collector” gets no jail time. For its part, Massachusetts hardly appears aggressive in its policing of this area. It may not be an expressly pro-robber digger jurisdiction, but it does not exactly come off as a vigilant monitor of medical schools.
This may or may not be an actual film from the Massachusetts UAGA inspection unit:
