The ex-manager of Harvard Medical School morgue pleaded guilty Wednesday to harvesting body parts from cadavers donated to the elite Boston institution and selling them on for personal profit.
Cedric Lodge, 57, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty to interstate transport of stolen human remains before Chief U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
His plea agreement includes a potential sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Officials said Lodge admitted that from 2018 through at least March 2020 he participated in the sale and interstate transport of human remains stolen from the Harvard Medical School morgue in Massachusetts, ABC News reports.
The maximum penalty under federal law is 10 years in prison, a term of supervised release following imprisonment and a fine.
A sentence following a finding of guilt is imposed by the judge after “consideration of the applicable federal sentencing statutes and the federal sentencing guidelines,” according to the release.
Former Harvard Medical School morgue manager Cedric Lodge shields his face with a printout of the indictment against him as he walked from the Warren B. Rudman United States Courthouse, following arrest on charges related to an alleged scheme to steal and sell donated body parts. (Steven Porter/The Boston Globe via Getty)
As a morgue worker, he “removed human remains, including organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other parts, from donated cadavers after they had been used for research and teaching purposes but before they could be disposed of according to the anatomical gift donation agreement between the donor and the school,” as per the press release
Lodge was not alone in his crimes, the press release further detailed.
Several other defendants have previously entered guilty pleas in related cases, including Lodge’s wife, Denise Lodge, Joshua Taylor, Andrew Ensanian, Matthew Lampi, and Angelo Pereyra.
Lampi was sentenced to 15 months in prison and Pereyra was sentenced to 18 months.
Denise Lodge and Joshua Taylor are still awaiting sentencing.
Additionally, Candace Chapman-Scott, who stole remains from an Arkansas crematorium where she was employed and sold them to Pauley in Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty in Arkansas federal court and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
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