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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
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Just did his job on bodies |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Friday, 14 October 2005 |
Lawyer defends suspect in parts probe
Michael Mastromarino, the one-time dentist at the center of the Brooklyn district attorney's body-snatching investigation, is no ghoul and "has absolutely done nothing wrong," his attorney told the Daily News yesterday.
"He never met any families; his sole responsibility was to harvest tissue," said lawyer Mario Gallucci, denying allegations that his client illegally carved tissue and other body parts from corpses.
The parts were harvested by Mastromarino at more than six funeral homes in Brooklyn and Manhattan in addition to funeral homes in Pennsylvania, Florida and other states beginning in 2002, Gallucci said.
The bone, fat, skin, ligaments and other body parts are sold to tissue processors for a variety of transplants, including those used in orthopedic procedures and grafts for burn victims.
"My client has a network of funeral directors who would call him with bodies," said Gallucci.
"He would get phone calls all day long and if he got a call at noon from a funeral director, he would be there by 2 p.m. with a team," Gallucci said.
It was the funeral directors' responsibility to obtain donors' consent, Galluci said. "It's not his job, and if there were unwitting donors, the DA's office is right to do this," the lawyer said.
The body-parts trafficking operation is under investigation for allegedly creating forged relatives' consent forms and phony medical records.
Joseph Nicelli of Staten Island, a funeral home owner who was once Mastromarino's partner in the tissue-recovery business, is also under investigation. He declined comment.
The DA's investigation, first disclosed by The News last Friday, is focusing on Mastromarino's company, Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd. of Fort Lee, N.J.
Mastromarino, 42, surrendered his license to practice dentistry five years ago after his arrest for using cocaine and other narcotics, according to state records.
Jerry Schmetterer, spokesman for the Brooklyn DA's office, declined comment on the probe, which began more than a year ago.
The federal Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the tissue and transplant business, has since joined the inquiry.
The matter is now before a grand jury, according to Gallucci, who said his client has not testified before the panel. He declined to say whether Mastromarino answered questions or provided records to investigators.
FDA officials are concerned that body parts sold by Mastromarino's company might have been diseased.
"His tissue is the very highest quality, it is not contaminated, it is impossible that it is diseased," Gallucci said. "The tissue goes through a very rigorous process."
But sources have told The News that the records for a woman in her 20s who died of habitual drug use were changed to read death by cardiac arrest.
Gallucci countered, "If there were track marks [needle marks from injections], that [corpse] would be ruled out."
Mastromarino and those who worked with him also rejected bone and tissue noticeably affected by cancer, said Gallucci.
He said blood samples taken from corpses were sent to tissue-processing companies, which then approved or rejected the donor.
"My client is licensed in New York. He's licensed and inspected by the FDA," said Gallucci, adding that Mastromarino has passed numerous quality audits by the companies who buy his product.
"He is a very bright guy, he's running a good company," said Gallucci.
Source: NY Daily News
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“Come lovely and soothing death, Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving, In the day, in the night, to all, to each, Sooner or later, delicate death.” #NAME?
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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