Quote:

Well that's going too far.

'GHOUL' WON'T STAND TRIAL
By ALEX GINSBERG
New York Post

December 4, 2007 -- The former owner of the Brooklyn funeral home where prosecutors claim a ring of organ thieves harvested bones and tissue from cadavers is unfit to stand trial with his co-defendants, a judge ruled yesterday.

Justice John Walsh separated former Daniel George & Son Funeral Home owner Joseph Nicelli's case from his alleged cohorts' after a serious fall at a Jersey City construction site left him with severe brain injuries.

Michael Mastromarino, Lee Crucetta and Christopher Aldorasi are expected to stand trial on Jan. 8.

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Embalmer granted separate NYC trial in body parts scandal

Newsday
December 3, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) _ A former funeral parlor owner and embalmer accused in a plot to plunder corpses and sell the body parts for transplants has been granted a separate trial because he needs more time to recover from a serious head injury, prosecutors said Monday.

Joseph Nicelli has been rehabilitating since suffering the injury in January by falling off a roof, but has not made enough progress to appear at an upcoming trial with three co-defendants. The trial is expected to begin sometime early next year in Brooklyn.

The four men were charged last year with removing skin, bone and other parts from hundreds of bodies at funeral homes in New York without family permission. A related case involving nearly 250 bodies has been brought in Philadelphia as well.

Seven funeral directors have since pleaded guilty to undisclosed charges and agreed to cooperate. Lawyers have said one was the director of a funeral home that took parts from the body of the late "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke.