Prosecutors said Reid made $43,000 by selling remains to Nelson, who operated Empire Anatomical Co.

Nelson, in turn, is suspected of making more than $1 million by selling hundreds of body parts to more than 20 private medical, pharmaceutical and hospital research companies.

Nelson also was charged with tax evasion. The men sought to hide their scheme with bogus documentation, the complaint said.

Reid's lawyer, Melvyn Sacks, blamed Nelson for any wrongdoing.

“Henry's as big a victim in this matter as UCLA is, and they were both victimized by a master thief, Ernest Nelson,” Sacks said. “I have every confidence that justice will be done when we get into court.”

Nelson's civil lawyer, Thomas Brill, said he suspects that the charges might have been an attempt by UCLA to delay lawsuits against the university filed by relatives of people who donated their bodies.

Nelson, who also has sued UCLA, contends he believed he was working with school authorization when he received torsos from UCLA, cut them up and kept frozen parts in a rented warehouse to provide them for corporate clients, Brill said.

“I don't think there's any evidence” of criminal wrongdoing, the lawyer said.

Both men were in jail Wednesday, each held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Reid could be sentenced to as many as five years and eight months in prison if convicted of all counts, while Nelson faces up to seven years and eight months, said Sandi Gibbons, a district attorney's office spokeswoman.

The scheme began to unravel in 2003, prosecutors said, after a state health investigator became concerned about a sale and contacted the university. The two men were arrested in 2004 but freed while an investigation continued.

The probe led UCLA to suspend the willed body program temporarily, and shed light on the lucrative world of processing human remains for medical and scientific research.

The program resumed operation in October 2005 under stricter safeguards and guidelines.

Norman Abrams, acting chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement that the school “appreciates the patience exhibited by the families of donors” during the probe.

“The entire UCLA community was deeply distressed by what occurred. We look forward to continuing our work to advance medical science, train physicians and serve the community,” he added.

The scandal was not the first time the UCLA willed body program was embroiled in controversy.

In 1996, lawyers representing donors' relatives sued, charging that the program had illegally disposed of thousands of donated bodies. The lawsuits claimed that some remains from different donors were commingled and that some were buried in landfills. A state appellate court eventually ruled the plaintiffs had failed to prove the allegations.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070308-0440-ca-willedbodies.html