The disclosure of an alleged human body parts trafficking operation connected to the Harvard Medical School morgue’s fallout has begun with the filing of a lawsuit against the school and the employee allegedly responsible for these “deplorable acts.”
“The law recognizes that human beings are entitled to be treated with decency and dignity after death including by not having their bodies mishandled, viewed, dismembered, and/or sold by those entrusted with them,” the lawsuit filed Friday in Suffolk Superior Court states.
“Families who lose loved ones find solace in temporarily entrusting the bodies of their loved ones to an institution such as Harvard Medical School with the goal of furthering academic and medical research,” it continues. “The actions of the Harvard Medical School morgue manager in mishandling and selling the body parts of cadavers donated to the school was a reprehensible tragedy that should have never happened.”
The lawsuit, which seeks recognition as a class action claim and a jury trial, was filed by attorney Jeffrey Catalano of the Milton-based Keches Law Group, P.C. on behalf of John Bozek and “on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated.”
A Harvard Medical School spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
Bozek, of Tewksbury, is the son of Adele Mazzone, who the lawsuit said had arranged to “temporarily donate her body to Harvard and HMS to further the study of science and medicine” prior to her death on Feb. 5, 2019.
“Upon information and belief, the body of Adele Mazzone was one of the many donated cadavers mishandled at the HMS morgue by Defendant Cedric Lodge,” the lawsuit states.
Lodge, 55, of Goffstown, N.H., worked in the Harvard Medical School morgue. While this lawsuit and the indictment filed in federal court for Middle District of Pennsylvania — where two others named on the indictment reside — refer to Lodge as a “manager” of the morgue, Harvard said on Wednesday that Lodge was an employee of the school’s anatomical gifts program and did not actually manage any other employees.
The suit alleges charges against Harvard of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, respondeat superior liability — a legal term which means holding the employer responsible for negligible acts by its employee — negligent infliction of emotional distress, and undetermined violations of the state Consumer Protection Act, a law which Massachusetts defines as one that “protects people from unfair and misleading business actions.” That last count heads an unfilled section marked “[RESERVED].”
The suit levels charges specifically against Lodge of negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
The lawsuit seeks certification as a class action with the putative class represented by plaintiff Bozek, recognition of attorney Catalano as the class’ legal representative, various damages and an order enjoining “the Defendants from continuing the unlawful practices which are the subject matter of this action.”
This is a developing story.