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NEW YORK, March 31 (UPI) -- Two men accused of cutting open corpses as part of an illegal New York and New Jersey body-parts ring say they thought there was proper family consent.
Lee Cruceta and Christopher Aldorasi said they believed the removed tissue would be tested for disease before being delivered for implantation in living patients, the New York Post reported.
Cruceta's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, told the Post that prosecutors offered Cruceta, of Monroe, N.Y., a deal to testify against former dentist Michael Mastromarino, but he wasn't certain Mastromarino knew either.
Cruceta and Aldorasi, of Staten Island, worked together for Mastromarino's now-shuttered New Jersey business, Biomedical Tissue Services. Tacopina said Cruceta never had contact with Joseph Nicelli of Staten Island, a mortician also charged in the case.
Prosecutors say the illegal body-parts ring netted $4.7 million over a nearly four-year period ending in October, by harvesting parts from 1,077 corpses without proper consent or disease testing. The case has sparked at least two dozen lawsuits against Mastromarino, his company and others.
All four defendants are free on bail and claim innocence.
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