While university officials expressed regret for criminal
allegations involving its Willed Body Program at a press conference
Monday, relatives of those whose bodies were donated to the program
filed a lawsuit against UCLA.
UCLA’s attorney, Louis Marlin, said he expects additional
lawsuits to be filed against UCLA because of the recent discovery
that parts of cadavers donated to the university may have been sold
illegally .
The new lawsuit seeks class action status and alleges that UCLA
officials were aware donated bodies were being sold illegally.
Henry Reid, 54, the director of the program, was arrested by
university police at his residence in Anaheim on Saturday and
charged with grand theft. Ernest Nelson, 46, who is not a UCLA
employee, was arrested early Sunday morning in connection with the
theft and charged with knowingly receiving stolen property.
Reid and Nelson posted $20,000 and $30,000 bail, respectively,
and are scheduled for arraignment today.
Police searched the Willed Body Program Department on Monday,
searching for more evidence in the case.
University officials say Nelson was able to sell body parts with
the help of Reid, the program’s director.
But Nelson said the story is different and that he cut up nearly
800 cadavers with the full knowledge of UCLA officials along with
Reid, according to a Los Angeles Times article published
Monday.
“I call one of the most prestigious universities in the
world, their director gives me the protocol, I follow that
protocol, and they charge me with receiving stolen body
parts?” Nelson told the Times. “If I wasn’t
supposed to be there, why couldn’t they tell me that? It was
not done in secret.”
Nelson also told the Times he visited UCLA’s body freezer
at the Medical Center twice a week, carrying a saw in his hand to
disassemble cadavers and collect various body parts to give to
clients.
The Times also reported Nelson was charged $704,600 for 496
cadavers over a period of six years, according to invoices provided
by a law firm representing Nelson. Each cadaver cost roughly
$1,400.
At a Monday press conference, Marlin said he neither could
refute nor confirm Nelson’s story until the investigation had
been completed.
University officials became skeptical earlier this year when an
attorney for Nelson sent a letter demanding that he be paid
$241,000 for parts he was forced to return to UCLA.
According to a New York Times article published today,
Nelson’s attorney faxed copies of five checks totaling
$36,000 that were payable to Reid as part of an effort to back
Nelson’s claims.
Under federal law, body parts are not supposed to be sold for
profit, and bodies are not to be sold for commercial purposes
outside the university.
J. Thomas Rosenthal, chief medical officer of the UCLA Medical
Center and associate vice chancellor of the UCLA David Geffen
School of Medicine, said for over a year, policies that
“would not let body parts effectively leave UCLA” have
been in place.
An average of 175 people donate their bodies to UCLA’s
Willed Body Program each year, and there is currently a waiting
list of 11,000 people who have agreed to donate their bodies.
“It has always been our intent to treat these
people’s remains with dignity and respect,” said Gerald
Levey, dean of the UCLA School of Medicine and vice chancellor of
UCLA Medical Sciences.
“These alleged crimes violate the trust of the donors,
their families and UCLA.” Levey said. “We are deeply
saddened.”
Chancellor Albert Carnesale echoed the sentiments in a
statement.
“I am, of course, deeply concerned about the emotional
pain that this situation has caused the families of those
individuals who have donated their bodies. Please know that we are
shocked and angered by the despicable behavior of those
involved,” he said.
University police said they had not obtained a warrant for a
UCLA employee placed on leave nearly two weeks ago but that they
were hoping to question the individual in relation to the case.
Monday’s press conference revealed that UCLA’s more
than 50-year-old program has been put in a fledgling position
““ it must completely reform the Willed Body Program even as
the criminal investigation proceeds.
“We have lots and lots of information that we are going to
have to sift through,” said UCPD’s acting Chief Karl
Ross, adding that it is going to take roughly one to two weeks to
go through the data.
Ross said after the information is sorted, police will make a
decision as to what actions need to be taken.
Reforming the Willed Body Program also will prove difficult
because its image has been under fire for close to a decade amid
allegations of unethical and illegal practices.
In 1996, a lawsuit was filed against UCLA by an attorney
representing the families of nearly 18,000 participants who alleged
the university handled the bodies “without
dignity.”
Reid was hired in 1997 to revamp the program, and UCLA officials
said they thought policies and procedures were in place to ensure
the department was running smoothly. They said they were mistaken,
looking back.
“In hindsight, those were not sufficient to prevent law
breaking. And I’m not sure any policy or procedure is ever
going to be sufficient to prevent lawbreaking. And lawbreaking is
what occurred here,” Rosenthal said.
Only two people are seeking recovery for emotional distress from
the 1996 lawsuit, Marlin said.
But he said another part of the suit remains ““ the suit
seeks injunctive relief against the Willed Body Program, asking the
court to step in and make sure the program runs properly.
In early February, UCLA had won a motion and signature by Court
Commissioner Bruce Mitchell saying that appropriate reforms had
been made to the program.
UCLA recently withdrew that motion, Marlin said, and will work
with the court to solve the problems.
“Realistically what will happen is that we will talk with
our judicial officer tomorrow and tell him that we would anticipate
that it would be appropriate to work with him and Gov. (George)
Deukmejian to institute changes.
“(We want to) make sure that Gov. Deukmejian oversees
those changes and that ultimately they are approved by the court so
we have another level of approval of changes that are made,”
Marlin said.
Rosenthal said reforms were implemented recently to combat the
alleged past corruption.
Security officers were placed on the seventh floor of the
Medical Center, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure the
department has 100 percent control of the bodies.
Rosenthal has been placed in charge of the daily operations of
the program, and Deukmejian has agreed to oversee the
program’s overall reformation.
“Obviously there has to be very extensive oversight and
audit. One of the reasons we’ve asked somebody of his stature
to oversee this is he will hold us to the highest standard,”
Rosenthal said.
And while there are still many steps that need to be taken to
restore the image of the program, one change that will have an
immense effect has already been made.
“The immediate reforms are that we don’t have the
one individual who’s been clearly accused of a crime involved
in any way, shape or form. That’s the most immediate
reform,” Rosenthal said.
With reports from Bruin wire services. UCLA has set up a
hotline at (866) 317-6374 and a Web page at www.ucla.edu/willedbody
for those with questions about the Willed Body Program.