NewsLibrary Document Delivery Philadelphia Daily News (PA) March 31, 2006 Section: LOCAL Edition: 4STAR Page: 03 Memo:DISRESPECTED IN DEATH HE DID HIS PART ANOTHER CUTTER TALKS ON SCANDAL Says he too carved bodies in Kensington SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM simone @phillynews.com 215-854-5324 Staff writer Mary Flannery contributed to this report. An indicted former employee of a biomedical-tissue company spoke yesterday about the 17 months he spent visiting a funeral home in the Kensington section of Philadelphia removing body parts from corpses. Before going into a hearing in a New York courtroom, Lee Cruceta told this reporter that he and a co-worker had driven to the Louis Garzone Funeral Home, on Somerset Street near Ruth, and carved up bodies. The first employee of the human-tissue firm to come forward, Kevin Vickers, told the Daily News last month that he had cut up bodies at the funeral home for two months, November and December 2004. Vickers has not been charged in the case. Prosecutors have said that the body parts, some of which were diseased, were sold to tissue banks, which in turn sold them either to an intermediary or directly to hospitals. Regionally, 16 surgical patients here and 78 at the Jersey shore have been notified that they may have received contaminated tissue. Cruceta said his work extended from February 2004 to last September, a month before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began an investigation of Cruceta's employer, Biomedical Tissue Service Inc., of Fort Lee, N.J. Yesterday was the first court appearance for Cruceta and three other men since their February indictment in the scandal. The 15-minute hearing focused on when the prosecution will turn over seized documents to the defense. Another hearing is slated for May 15. New York police began their probe into Biomedical after a detective discovered in November 2004 an operating room in a Brooklyn funeral home used by the firm to dissect corpses. The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office brought indictments against Cruceta, his boss and Biomedical owner Michael Mastromarino; fellow cutter Christopher Aldorasi, and Joseph Nicelli, Mastromarino's business partner. When asked if Vickers had traveled with him to Philadelphia, Cruceta replied, "Yes, he did." He also said the only funeral home he had gone to in Philadelphia was the Louis Garzone home. Cruceta declined to discuss how many times he had visited the Louis Garzone parlor or how many bodies he had worked on here. He said he felt uncomfortable talking about his time in Philadelphia without his lawyer present. After the brief hearing, his lawyer, George Vomvolakis, said Cruceta had believed he was doing nothing illegal. "He did take part in [tissue] recovery at Garzone's," Vomvolakis said. "It wasn't his job to get consent." The lawyer said he believed that prosecutors had indicted his client so he would point the finger at his former boss. "This is a nightmare for him," Vomvolakis said. Cruceta said he has six years of experience in the medical field. Prosecutors have said the four defendants had failed to get permission of relatives of the deceased to take tissue samples. Scattered yesterday among defense lawyers, their clients and news reporters were relatives of those whose bodies had been dissected. Vito Bruno, 49, of Brooklyn, said he had been told by detectives that the remains of his father, Michael, had been cut up before his cremation. He said he had never consented to the dissection. He said his father had died of cancer, but authorities told him that documents had been altered to indicate he had died of heart failure. He said he felt "very uncomfortable" to be in the same room with Mastromarino, the tissue-firm's owner. "I'm not happy to be here at all." The Louis Garzone Funeral Home has emerged as the only Philadelphia facility linked to the now-defunct Biomedical Tissue Service, Inc., according to two sources familiar with the investigation. Garzone was not named in the indictment. Prosecutors said up to 30 funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia are being investigated for supplying bodies to Biomedical. More indictments are expected. The FDA has since shut down Biomedical, saying the tissue bank had harvested tissue without asking family members for permission and for not screening for disease. Biomedical sold these parts to unknowing tissue banks across the country that converted them into bone paste, skin graphs, dental implants, and scores of other tissue transplants placed inside trusting patients, said Brooklyn prosecutors. The four defendants pleaded not guilty last month to charges including body-stealing, unlawful dissection and forgery. They are all out on bail, ranging from $250,000 to $1.5 million. Mastromarino's lawyer, Mario Galluci, said that Garzone and his client were "business associates," and that Aldorasi and Cruceta had cometo Philadelphia with Vickers but "no one else." Mastromarino has argued that he expected funeral homes to obtain family consent and his role was to collect the tissue. New York state law allows licensed tissue-bank workers to cut up bodies in funeral homes as long as families give consent to the bank, said a New York State Department of Health spokesman. In Pennsylvania, certified funeral directors can authorize the removal only of corneas from corpses, and family consent is required beforehand. All other tissue removal must be authorized by either Gift of Life in Philadelphia or the Center for Organ Recovery & Education in Pittsburgh. Prosecutors have said that Mastromarino and the three other men forged death certificates and lied about family consent to sell the harvested tissue to legal medical companies. Cruceta is living outside New York City with his family, and recently started a new job in the medical field, his lawyer said, refusing to name the line of work. * Illustration:PHOTO Copyright (c) 2006 Philadelphia Daily News