No Prison For Eastern PA Man Who Sold Stolen Body Parts: Police

BERKS COUNTY, PA — An eastern Pennsylvania man who federal authorities said bought and then resold human body parts stolen from a Harvard Medical School morgue has avoided jail time in at least one of the cases against him, a judge ruled this week.

Jeremy Pauley, 42, of Bloomsburg, was sentenced to two years of probation on the charge of abuse of a corpse, court documents show.

Pauley still faces up to 15 years behind bars on the separate charges of conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property. He pleaded guilty to both counts last fall and is awaiting sentencing.

Pauley was one of six people charged in the summer of 2022 when the case was broken.

The incidents occurred from 2018 to 2022. Cedric Lodge, 55, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, the manager of the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard, worked with another Pennsylvania man, 46-year-old Joshua Taylor of West Lawn, to steal the organs, authorities said.

At times, Taylor entered the morgue so that he could choose what he wanted to purchase, police said. Sometimes Taylor drove the parts back to Berks County, other times the parts to were shipped to him and others out of state, police said.

"Some crimes defy understanding," United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam said in a statement. "The theft and trafficking of human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human."

Taylor then resold the remains for profit, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Pauley was one of his buyers, and he also resold many of the parts, exchanging over $100,000 in goods in one buyer, police said.

The stolen body parts had been donated for research an educational purposed to the school.

"It is particularly egregious that so many of the victims here volunteered to allow their remains to be used to educate medical professionals and advance the interests of science and healing," Karam added. "For them and their families to be taken advantage of in the name of profit is appalling. With these charges, we are seeking to secure some measure of justice for all these victims."

Taylor and the others face up to 15 years behind bars, in addition to probation and a fine.

In addition to Taylor, Lodge, and Pauley, Katrina Maclean, 45, of Salem, Massachusetts, Denise Lodge, 64, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, and Mathew Lampi, 53, of East Bethel, Minnesota, were also arrested and charged. Their cases are separate and remain ongoing.