Jeremy Pauley had earlier pleaded guilty to abusing a corpse in a plea deal with prosecutors.
A Pennsylvania man who admitted to buying and selling stolen body parts has been sentenced to probation as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, authorities said Tuesday.
Jeremy Pauley, 42, had earlier pleaded guilty to abusing a corpse, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to two years of supervised probation, with the possibilty of unsupervised probation during the second year for good behavior.
"To many, the facts are disturbing. To some, the facts are abhorrent," Judge Albert Masland said in court.
Pauley acknowledged to participating in a nationwide network that bought and sold human remains stolen from Harvard Medical School and an Arkansas mortuary, according to federal authorities.
In exchange for pleading guilty, local prosecutors dropped other charges against Pauley, including two counts of receiving stolen property and one count of dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities.
Pauley has also pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. His sentencing hearing on those charges has not been scheduled, according to federal prosecutors.
The man was arrested by East Pennsboro Township Police in July 2020, when investigators went to his home after receiving a complaint that buckets of human skin and human organs were stored in his basement, authorities said.
Officers found 5-gallon containers filled with body parts including including lungs, hearts and fetuses, they said. Pauley said he was a collector of "oddities" that he bought and sold online, police said.
"This is one of the most bizarre investigations I have encountered in my thirty-three years as a prosecutor. Just when I think I have seen it all, a case like this comes around," District Attorney Sean McCormack said in a statement then.
Pauley is one of seven people arrested by federal agents in connection with a nationwide ring of body sellers and buyers, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Among those awaiting trial is Cedric Lodge, the former morgue manager at Harvard. He was accused of stealing body parts from remains that had been donated to science and then selling them. He has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and is awaiting trial, which is expected to begin this spring, according to federal authorites.
The arrests shocked the university and its community, and generated international headlines.
“Some crimes defy understanding,” U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam said in announcing the arrests last June. "The theft and trafficking of human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human.
"It is particularly egregious that so many of the victims here volunteered to allow their remains to be used to educate medical professionals," the prosecutor said.
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