Oversight Still Lacking in Donations of Bodies

Just months after a 1999 scandal at UC Irvine, where an employee improperly dismembered and sold cadavers donated to the school, legislators scrambled to halt the black market trade in body parts for medical research.

The state legislative analyst wrote in June 2000 that backers of a bill by Assemblyman Ken Maddox (R-Garden Grove) believed it “restores confidence in ... donor programs and ensures that no more grieving families are exploited.” Gov. Gray Davis signed the bill later that year.

But today, another scandal is unfolding involving the illegal sale of body parts that highlights gaping holes that still exist in the oversight of bodies willed to science. In a case so grisly it rivals the one unfolding in Georgia, a Lake Elsinore man is accused of dismembering at least 81 bodies left with him for cremation and selling off the parts to medical schools.

No agency is responsible for regulating so-called “willed-body” programs run by colleges and medical research institutes to acquire human bodies or body parts for dissection. Not the Department of Consumer Affairs, which licenses crematories. Not even the Department of Health Services. Instead, the programs run largely on the honor system.

“At some point in regulatory matters, you just have to rely on the person doing the right thing,” said Kevin Flanagan, spokesman for the Cemetery and Funeral Services division of the Department of Consumer Affairs.

But many people with relatives whose bodies were treated improperly say that’s not good enough.

“They inspect restaurants and make sure there aren’t roaches or things that can hurt the public,” said Mike DiMeglio, whose stepfather’s remains were supposed to be cremated by Pacific Cremation Care in Lake Elsinore but instead, investigators say, were sold to research facilities. “Why aren’t they out there inspecting just as closely what’s happening at these crematories? What does it take to get their attention?”

Lawmaker Says Laws Still Weak

State Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), who lobbied to place funeral home and cremation regulation under the jurisdiction of the Department of Consumer Affairs in 1996, acknowledged the laws are still weak.

“We’ve done quite a bit already,” Speier said. “But obviously, there are still problems.”

Pacific Cremation Care owner Michael Brown had for years passed a state review of his crematory, where inspectors made sure that ovens reached proper temperatures and that a logbook of activity was being kept. During a surprise inspection in September 2000, inspectors found four minor violations and fined Brown $2,500.

From the same site, Brown also ran Bio-Tech Anatomical, which received and shipped out cadavers donated for science.

After a former employee complained, investigators identified 81 bodies that they allege were illegally carved up for sale, earning $365,000 from March 2000 to February 2001. Only a portion of the bodies were actually cremated and returned to families, authorities contend.

“The problem was that [Brown sold] more body parts than were donated,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Karen Gorham. “And if his business had been properly monitored, that couldn’t have happened.”

Brown has pleaded not guilty to 156 counts of embezzlement and unlawful mutilation of human remains. If convicted, he faces 100 years in prison.

Released on $150,000 bail, Brown could not be reached, and his lawyer did not return calls. Attorney Rick Layon has said Brown is guilty of nothing more than poor record keeping.

Investigation of the Lake Elsinore case “entailed hundreds of interviews, hundreds of boxes of documents seized, and took hundreds of hours to piece together,” Gorham said.

On March 2, 2001, investigators served a search warrant on the business, seizing 74 cadavers, 128 body parts and more than 100 boxes of office records.

To sort through it all, investigators built a database to match names with recovered body parts.

The most difficult task, however, was the notification of family members.

Often, relatives were presented with Polaroid pictures and asked to identify warts or moles on various body parts. Detectives, for example, asked Mary Rodriguez to identify the severed head of her stepfather, 66-year-old William Hillyer, a former San Diego resident. Too distraught to handle the task, she deferred to her brother.

“You just can’t imagine how devastating this all is,” Rodriguez said. “You literally have to go through the grief process all over again.”

“I feel so betrayed,” said DiMeglio, whose stepfather, a former Murrieta resident, was sent to Pacific Cremation Care last year. The Korean War veteran had fatally shot himself after learning he had terminal lung cancer. He left behind a $150 check to cover the balance on a credit card bill, and an $850 check for cremation costs.

Now, the thought of Ronald King’s body pulled apart and scattered across the country was more than DiMeglio could bear. He wept and waited several days before finding the courage to break the news to his adult daughters.

“I mean, to them, this was Grandpa,” said DiMeglio, his voice becoming thick with emotion. “When you are in such a desperate place, when you are feeling so vulnerable, you just don’t think someone is going to do this. If you can’t trust somebody helping you through a death in your family, who can you trust?”

Families now are uncertain if the ashes returned to them are indeed of their loved one. Others are waiting for remains still in the custody of authorities holding them for evidence.

“Now we face the prospect of having to lay [William] to rest properly this time and, in a way, apologize for not being able to do it right the first time,” Rodriguez said.

Ultimately, sheriff’s investigators flew to universities in San Francisco, Utah, Kentucky and North Carolina to recover body parts. Brown also sold cadavers to Cypress College in Orange Country, court documents show.

Authorities, state legislators and officials with the Department of Consumer Affairs said the facilities that bought the parts did not violate any laws.

Researchers are under no obligation to verify that vendors are dealing in properly donated tissue, officials said.

Court records indicate that at the time Brown engaged in the sale of body parts, he was struggling with deep financial problems. Federal and county tax judgments of $23,252 have been filed against Pacific Cremation Care. And in 1994, Brown’s wife, Victoria, filed for bankruptcy protection.

Case Similar to UC Scandal

The case closely mimics a 1999 scandal at UC Irvine, when the head of the school’s Willed Body Program, Christopher Brown, was fired for alleged wrongdoing.

Brown, who is not related to Michael Brown, allegedly sold body parts to out-of-state researchers without university knowledge, returned the wrong ashes to family members, and improperly charged relatives for the return of ashes after bodies were used for research.

A university audit also revealed Brown overcharged the school hundreds of dollars by inflating the bills from a private cadaver transportation company, owned by a business associate of Brown’s.

Brown was fired from the university, but no criminal charges were filed. Still, the case spurred state lawmakers to create laws that were supposed to tighten regulation of willed-body programs.

At the urging of the Orange Country District Attorney’s Office, which investigated the UC Irvine case, Assemblyman Maddox wrote a bill calling for better documentation of willed bodies, made it a crime to knowingly return the wrong cremated remains to family members, and allowed remains cremated after they were used for medical research to be returned to relatives at no charge.

It also required coroners to receive consent on any body or body part released for scientific purposes.

That bill was augmented in August 2000 with one from former Assemblyman Martin Gallegos (D-Baldwin Park), who put the oversight of live organ transplants under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health Services. Gallegos also ordered Health Services officials to study the body parts industry and report back with a list of recommended changes. But that report isn’t due until January 2003, said Kevin Reilly, deputy director for prevention services at the California Department of Health Services.

“We are still assessing what problems exist,” Reilly said. “Certainly we are aware of the situation in Riverside County, and that should influence some of our decision-making about future regulations.”