Ex-Harvard Medical School morgue manager pleads guilty in stolen body parts case
A New Hampshire man who was the manager of the morgue at Harvard Medical School pleaded guilty to a single criminal charge in federal court in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, court records show.
Cedric Lodge, of Goffstown, N.H., pleaded guilty to a single count of interstate transport of stolen goods, pursuant to a plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors last month.
Court records did not immediately show a sentencing date for Lodge. The maximum sentence for the charge of interstate transport of stolen goods is 10 years, but sentencing guidelines recommend a sentence of no jail time to six months, PennLive reported, citing Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan V. Martin.
Lodge became the eighth person connected to the scheme to plead guilty on Wednesday, a group that includes his wife, Denise.
Lodge oversaw the morgue at Harvard Medical School, and beginning in 2018 started stealing dissected portions of dead bodies donated to the morgue, including heads, brains, skin and bones. He continued doing so until March 2023, according to federal prosecutors.
He and Denise Lodge were among six people charged with trafficking remains in 2023, a group that included Katrina MacLean, a Salem woman who owned a shop in Peabody
Cedric Lodge would bring the stolen body parts from the Harvard morgue to New Hampshire, where he and his wife negotiated their online sale. The Lodges shipped two dozen hands, two feet, nine spines, portions of skulls, five dissected human faces and two dissected heads as part of the scheme, PennLive reported.
In doing so, Cedric Lodge violated a Harvard Medical School policy barring employees from removing, keeping or selling any remains.
The couple netted payments totaling in the tens of thousands over the course of the scheme, according to prosecutors.
In the wake of the indictments against Lodge and others, several families whose loved ones donated their bodies to Harvard Medical School filed lawsuits in Suffolk Superior Court accusing the university of negligence.
The lawsuits were tossed by a lower court judge, but the Supreme Judicial Court is weighing whether to reinstate them.
Jeffrey Catalano, an attorney for the families, told the state's highest court in February that security cameras surrounding the morgue showed Lodge 'letting unauthorized strangers' in and 'dragging body parts out' to his car.
The car had a license plate reading 'grim reaper,' Catalano said.
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