Verdict Reached in UCLA Body Parts Case

Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - A middleman who supplied private companies with human cadavers or body parts from UCLA's Willed Body Program was convicted today of eight felony charges, including conspiracy and grand theft.

Ernest Nelson, 51, is facing up to 12 years in state prison, with sentencing set for June 12 before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe.

The prosecution also will be asking the judge to order Nelson to pay $1.5 million in restitution, said Deputy District Attorney Marisa Zarate.

The six-man, six-woman panel deliberated just over a day before finding Nelson guilty of one count each of conspiracy to commit grand theft from the UCLA Willed Body Program, grand theft, grand theft by false pretenses and failure to file an income tax return for 2003 and four counts of filing a false tax return involving the 1999-2002 tax years.

In her opening statement, the prosecutor told jurors that Nelson took part in a body-parts-for-profit scheme, working with the now-59-year-old Henry Reid, who headed UCLA's Willed Body Program at the time.

Reid pleaded guilty Oct. 17 to conspiracy to commit grand theft and was sentenced Jan. 30 to four years and four months in state prison. Reid was not called to testify during Nelson's trial.

One of the jurors told reporters after the verdict that the panelists wondered why Reid did not testify during Nelson's trial.

"Where is Henry Reid -- the state's star witness?" the 48-year-old juror pondered aloud, while noting that he believed the panel's verdict against Nelson was "fair and just."

The prosecutor -- who handled the case with Deputy District Attorney Eugene Hanrahan -- said Nelson endangered doctors and researchers by providing false serology reports to companies to which he sold the body parts.

"He was willing to go into a Willed Body Program and cut up body parts for his own personal financial gain," Zarate told reporters outside court after the verdict, noting that both sides wouldn't be in court if the proper paperwork had been filled out and if the payments had been made to UCLA.

During the trial, Zarate told jurors that the Willed Body Program "became derailed" after Reid and Nelson met and realized they could personally profit by Reid supplying Nelson with human cadavers and body parts that he sold to private companies. She said it was illegal for Reid to supply Nelson with the bodies without filling out the required paperwork.

Reid received six cashier's checks from Nelson in 1999 totaling $43,000, then was paid in cash in a move that left "no paper trail," Zarate said.

The only money trail found were the orders made by companies from throughout the United States who "legally paid" Nelson for the cadavers and body parts, the prosecutor said, noting that Nelson received $1.5 million between 1999 and 2003.

Defense attorney Sean K. McDonald countered during the trial that Nelson's clients included some of the biggest names in the industry, including Johnson & Johnson, in what was "all above board."

"Henry Reid is a thief," McDonald told jurors during the trial. "What he would do is he would provide Ernest Nelson with the cadaver ... The problem in this case is Henry Reid wasn't forwarding the money to UCLA. He was pocketing it."

Nelson's attorney said there was no conspiracy between the two men.

"That's Henry Reid deciding to take the money Ernest Nelson was paying for the cadavers," McDonald told jurors, noting that his client was an "outsider they could scapegoat" following news of the scandal.

The UCLA Police Department began an investigation into the allegations in February 2004, and criminal charges were filed against the two just over three years later -- a case that was later superceded by an indictment containing essentially the same charges.

UCLA's Willed Body Program receives donations from people who have willed their bodies to the school for medical education and research purposes -- primarily for use in training medical students and assisting with scientific and medical research.