WILLIAMSPORT - The former morgue manager at Harvard Medical School accused of harvesting and selling body parts like skin and heads has pleaded guilty.
A plea agreement on April 14 has Cedric Lodge pleading guilty to a count of interstate transport of stolen goods, which carries maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The agreement was reached with acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania John Gurganus' office.
"If the defendant can adequately demonstrate recognition and affirmative acceptance of responsibility to the Government as required by the Sentencing Guidelines, the Government will recommend that the defendant receive a two- or three-level reduction in the defendant's offense level for acceptance of responsibility," the agreement says.
Prosecutors will make a recommendation at sentencing they consider appropriate and reserve the right to suggest the maximum punishment.
Lodge and his co-defendants argued in motions to dismiss their indictments that pieces of dead bodies can't be considered "goods." He, his wife and two of his customers were charged after it was revealed he was selling body parts from corpses that had been donated to Harvard Medical School for research.
Civil lawsuits in Boston painted a wild picture of Lodge as a ghoul who took his job in the morgue way too far, even noting his personalized license plate - "Grim-R."
"The Grim Reaper posted images of himself dressed up in the garb of an undertaker in a Dickens novel with a black top hate and overcoat," one lawsuit said. "His license plate and open association with macabre hobbies revealed his view of his job at the morgue as a backdrop for his fantasies instead of a place of reverence and respect."
A federal grand jury indicted Lodge on charges he conspired to "unlawfully transport... stolen goods, wares and merchandise, that is, human remains, of the value of $5,000 or more." The second count says he did this over state lines.
But he said human remains do not meet the definitions of "goods, wares and merchandise." They have been traditionally defined to include personal property ordinarily the subject of commerce.
Gurganus' office replied to these arguments on March 17, calling the contention it is perfectly legal to buy and sell human remains but remains can't be stolen because they can't be legally bought "an absurd argument."
The Third Circuit held in 1959 "goods, wares and merchandise" is a comprehensive designation of personal property in a case of involving valuable maps. Cases cited by Lodge and his co-defendants arose from "very different factual contexts" than this one, the feds say.
https://pennrecord.com/stories/670600830-harvard-morgue-manager-charged-with-selling-body-parts-says-they-aren-t-merchandise
Katrina MacLean of Salem, Mass., and Joshua Taylor of West Lawn, Pa., are co-defendants, along with Lodge's wife. MacLean operates a store called Kat's Creepy Creations.
She explained her involvement by pointing at her "somewhat unusual interest" in a nationwide oddities community that collects body parts. The indictment says she sold remains stolen by Lodge and Taylor was a purchaser.
MacLean paid $600 to Lodge for two dissected faces in 2020, it says. She allegedly shipped human skin to a man she wanted to turn it into leather.
Taylor, who also recently pleaded guilty, paid Lodge's wife Denise more than $37,000 over three years for body parts, the indictment says. Memos on money transfers said things like "head number 7" and "braiiiiiins."
In Massachusetts civil court, Harvard won dismissal of several lawsuits against it by family members alleging emotional damages from finding out their loved ones were treated this way. That decision has been appealed.