KENNY GUIDO
February 23rd, 2006, 05:50 AM
Ghouls cut up my dad
'I'm stunned. I'm angry. I'm confused'
By JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Vito Bruno's father Michael's body parts were illicitly harvested and sold after his death.
Michael Bruno holding his granddaughter.
For the first time, the family of a dead man whose body parts were ghoulishly harvested without permission has come forward to blame the ex-dentist under investigation for the illicit theft of bones and tissue.
In a dramatic interview that exposed the full horror of the macabre plot, the heartbroken son of the man also revealed that his lawyer will file a lawsuit charging his name was forged on a document giving permission to remove his father's body parts.
Vito Bruno, whose father, Michael, died two years ago, is still reeling from the shock of learning last week that his father's cancer-ravaged body may have been plundered for profit.
"I'm stunned. I'm angry. I'm confused," said Bruno, 49. "It's pretty unbelievable that they would do something so hideous."
Bruno's lawsuit, to be filed tomorrow in Brooklyn Supreme Court, is the first legal salvo fired since The News broke the story of the body snatching probe targeting at least six funeral homes and Dr. Michael Mastromarino, who operates Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd. in Fort Lee, N.J.
Mastromarino allegedly offered funeral directors up to $500 for each body and personally dissected the corpses at the now closed Daniel George & Son Funeral Home on Bath Ave.
Last Sunday, Bruno said he was visited out of the blue by detectives from the NYPD Major Case Squad who had questions about his father's death.
Michael Bruno died at the age of 75 after a long battle with kidney cancer.
"He was the quintessential, old-fashioned, honest, Italian cab driver," Vito Bruno said. It was Michael Bruno's wish to be cremated and English Brothers Funeral Home picked up his body at the Veterans Administration Hospital.
Vito Bruno was floored when the detectives showed him a death certificate stating that his father had died of a heart attack, not cancer. Then he was asked to inspect a donor card which granted permission to harvest his father's body.
"Somebody had forged my signature," he said, adding he did not recall which specific body parts were taken.
His lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, said the illicit trafficking is a double outrage - for relatives of the deceased as well as recipients of the body parts.
Michael Bruno's body parts "were very weak and diseased" and could pose a risk to those who received them, said Rubenstein.
Rubenstein said the suit will charge English Brothers Funeral Home and Mastromarino with inflicting emotion distress and seek monetary damages.
For Vito Bruno, there is also a nagging question: "I don't even know who is in that container," he said of the urn containing his late father's ashes.
Mastromarino's lawyer, Mario Gallucci, said the lawsuit has no merit beause it wasn't Mastromarino's responsibility to obtain consent from families. Gallucci said that was the job of the funeral home.
"How are the families damaged in any way?" Gallucci asked. "They should be ecstatic that their loved ones were able to use their tissue to help people that are alive. It's just another greedy person I guess."
Frank Restivo, the owner of English Brothers, did not return repeated calls for comment.
Originally published on October 16, 2005
'I'm stunned. I'm angry. I'm confused'
By JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Vito Bruno's father Michael's body parts were illicitly harvested and sold after his death.
Michael Bruno holding his granddaughter.
For the first time, the family of a dead man whose body parts were ghoulishly harvested without permission has come forward to blame the ex-dentist under investigation for the illicit theft of bones and tissue.
In a dramatic interview that exposed the full horror of the macabre plot, the heartbroken son of the man also revealed that his lawyer will file a lawsuit charging his name was forged on a document giving permission to remove his father's body parts.
Vito Bruno, whose father, Michael, died two years ago, is still reeling from the shock of learning last week that his father's cancer-ravaged body may have been plundered for profit.
"I'm stunned. I'm angry. I'm confused," said Bruno, 49. "It's pretty unbelievable that they would do something so hideous."
Bruno's lawsuit, to be filed tomorrow in Brooklyn Supreme Court, is the first legal salvo fired since The News broke the story of the body snatching probe targeting at least six funeral homes and Dr. Michael Mastromarino, who operates Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd. in Fort Lee, N.J.
Mastromarino allegedly offered funeral directors up to $500 for each body and personally dissected the corpses at the now closed Daniel George & Son Funeral Home on Bath Ave.
Last Sunday, Bruno said he was visited out of the blue by detectives from the NYPD Major Case Squad who had questions about his father's death.
Michael Bruno died at the age of 75 after a long battle with kidney cancer.
"He was the quintessential, old-fashioned, honest, Italian cab driver," Vito Bruno said. It was Michael Bruno's wish to be cremated and English Brothers Funeral Home picked up his body at the Veterans Administration Hospital.
Vito Bruno was floored when the detectives showed him a death certificate stating that his father had died of a heart attack, not cancer. Then he was asked to inspect a donor card which granted permission to harvest his father's body.
"Somebody had forged my signature," he said, adding he did not recall which specific body parts were taken.
His lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, said the illicit trafficking is a double outrage - for relatives of the deceased as well as recipients of the body parts.
Michael Bruno's body parts "were very weak and diseased" and could pose a risk to those who received them, said Rubenstein.
Rubenstein said the suit will charge English Brothers Funeral Home and Mastromarino with inflicting emotion distress and seek monetary damages.
For Vito Bruno, there is also a nagging question: "I don't even know who is in that container," he said of the urn containing his late father's ashes.
Mastromarino's lawyer, Mario Gallucci, said the lawsuit has no merit beause it wasn't Mastromarino's responsibility to obtain consent from families. Gallucci said that was the job of the funeral home.
"How are the families damaged in any way?" Gallucci asked. "They should be ecstatic that their loved ones were able to use their tissue to help people that are alive. It's just another greedy person I guess."
Frank Restivo, the owner of English Brothers, did not return repeated calls for comment.
Originally published on October 16, 2005