Ex-Harvard morgue manager pleads guilty to trafficking organs, brains, other remains

Ex-Harvard morgue manager pleads guilty to trafficking organs, brains, other remains

Organs, brains, skin, hands, faces and dissected heads are examples of the human remains stolen and trafficked by aformer morgue manager at Harvard University, the ex-employee admitted in federal court. Cedric Lodge, 57, pleaded guilty on May 21 in the Middle District of Pennsylvania to the interstate transport of stolen human remains,Acting U.S. Attorney John Gurganus announced on May 22. From 2018 through at least March 2020, Lodge was involved in the sale and trafficking of human remains stolen from Harved Medical School's morgue in Boston, Massachusetts, according to the U.S. attorney's office. At the time of the crimes, Lodge was employed as the manager of Harvard Medical School's morgue. The stolen remains came from donated cadavers after they were used for research and teaching purposes, federal prosecutors said. Before they could be disposed of, Lodge took the remains without the knowledge or permission of Harvard, the donor of the cadavers or the donor's family, according to the U.S. attorney's office. "We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others," George Daley, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and Edward Hundert, dean for Medical Education,said in a joint statement in 2023."The reported incidents are a betrayal of (the Harvard Medical School) and, most importantly, each of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to HMS through the Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research." Once in Lodge's possession, he transported the remains to his home in New Hampshire. After Lodge and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold the remains, they would ship them to buyers in other states, or the buyer would purchase them directly and transport the body parts themselves, the U.S. attorney's office said. According to federal prosecutors, the stolen remains sold by Lodge were transported from the morgue in Boston to various locations in Salem, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Lodge admitted to selling the remains to multiple individuals who have since pleaded guilty, including Jeremy Pauley, Joshua Taylor, Andrew Ensanian, Matthew Lampi and Angelo Pereyra. According to court documents obtained by USA TODAY, Ensanian and Pereyra bought and transported remains worth $5,000 or more. Lodge, his wife and Taylor would communicate with potential buyers of the stolen human remains through social media websites and cell phones, an indictment against the three says. According to the court document, the group sometimes shipped the remains through the U.S. Postal Service to Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Another individual involved in the scheme was Candace Chapman-Scott, who stole remains from an Arkansas crematorium where she was employed and sold them to Pauley in Pennsylvania, federal prosecutors said. She pleaded guilty in Arkansas federal court and was sentenced to 15 years. The only person who has not pleaded guilty or been convicted is Katrina Maclean, who federal prosecutors allege helped Lodge, his wife, and Taylor. According to a criminal complaint, Maclean owns Kat's Creepy Creations, a studio and store in Peabody, Massachusetts. As of May 23, court records do not show that Lodge has a sentencing date scheduled. Contributing: Eric Lagatta/ USA TODAY Jonathan Limehouse covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at JLimehouse@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Harvard morgue case: Cedric Lodge pleads guilty to trafficking remains

byRoger Fisher

in

May 23, 2025

Ex-Harvard morgue manager pleads guilty to trafficking organs, brains, other remains

Ex-Harvard morgue manager pleads guilty to trafficking organs, brains, other remains Organs, brains, skin, hands, faces and dissected heads ...

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Judge Blocks Effort to Bar International Students at Harvard

Judge Blocks Effort to Bar International Students at Harvard

People walk through the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Credit - Michael Casey—Associated Press Afederal judge has ordered a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump Administration from revoking Harvard University's certification to enrol international students. The decision from U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs followed shortly after Harvard announced earlier on Friday that it issuing the Trump Administration. The lawsuit came less than 24 hours after the Department of Homeland Security announced that the Administration had revoked the university's certification to enrol international students. In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston on Friday, Harvard argued that the Administration's action violates the First Amendment. "It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government's demands to control Harvard's governance, curriculum, and the 'ideology' of its faculty and students," the complaint reads. Harvard went on to heavily criticize the Trump Administration, saying that the move to revoke the certification was "carried out abruptly without any of the robust procedures the government has established to prevent just this type of upheaval to thousands of students' lives." It continues to detail the impact this could have on international students, and the education structure as a whole, at Harvard, saying that "countless academic programs, research laboratories, clinics, and courses supported by Harvard's international students have been thrown into disarray." "The government's actions come just days before graduation. Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard," the lawsuit reads. This latest sequence of events mark a dramatic escalation ofthe Administration's battle with Harvard, as the Trump Administration's action on Thursday threatened to impact a significant portion of the university's student body and a key source of its revenue. Roughly 27% of Harvard's student body—about 6,800 students—come from outside the United States, a number that has grown steadily in the past decade,according to university enrollment data. Many of those students pay full tuition, contributing significantly to the university's nearly $6 billion annual budget. Read more:The Complicated History of Government Influence Over Universities The decision stunned students, faculty, and higher education leaders across the country. In a statement to TIME on Thursday, a Harvard spokesperson described the Trump Administration's move as "unlawful" and wrote that the University is "fully committed" to enrolling international students. "We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard's ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University—and this nation—immeasurably," said Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton. "We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard's academic and research mission." In light of Harvard's lawsuit, here's what you should know about the Trump Administration action that prompted it: The decision to revoke the certification, announced by the Department of Homeland Security in a letter delivered to the university and later shared publicly by Secretary Noem, immediately strips Harvard of its authorization under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). The revocation bars the university from admitting new international students and requires current foreign students to transfer to other institutions or face losing their legal status in the United States. "I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked," Noem wrote in the letter. In her letter, Noem cited Harvard's failure to comply with requests for records, its use of diversity and inclusion policies, and its handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus as the motivation for the Trump Administration's action. The Trump Administration has claimed that Harvard refused to turn over documents that Homeland Security says are related to potential "misconduct and other offenses" by foreign students. Noem also accused the university—without offering evidence—of fostering "an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' policies," as well as alleged coordination with the Chinese Communist Party. "Consequences must follow to send a clear signal to Harvard and all universities that want to enjoy the privilege of enrolling foreign students, that the Trump administration will enforce the law and root out the evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in society and campuses," Noem wrote. The Administration's decision adds to a growing list of federal penalties levied against Harvard, including the loss of billions infederal research fundingand recent threats to strip the university of its tax-exempt status. Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services said it would terminate $60 million in grants to the university. A White House spokesperson told TIME on Thursday that "Harvard has turned their once-great institution into a hot-bed of anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators." Read more:What to Know About the Universities That Have Had Their Funding Targeted by the Trump Administration "They have repeatedly failed to take action to address the widespread problems negatively impacting American students and now they must face the consequences of their actions," said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. "Enrolling foreign students is a privilege, not a right." The battle between the Administration and Harvard comes as President Donald Trump has increasingly sought to assert control over elite universities, often framing his actions as part of a broader effort to eliminate what it characterizes as ideological bias and campus extremism. Critics, however, say the Administration is punishing academic institutions for political reasons and curbing the free exchange of ideas. The Administration has separately moved to terminate the legal status of international students nationwide, including at Harvard. A federal judge on Thursday blocked it from doing so, ruling that the government can't arrest, incarcerate, or move students elsewhere based on their legal status until another case on the matter is resolved. Write toNik Popli atnik.popli@time.com.

byRoger Fisher

in

May 23, 2025

Judge Blocks Effort to Bar International Students at Harvard

Judge Blocks Effort to Bar International Students at Harvard People walk through the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on Tu...

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New Orleans' jail system was troubled decades before 10 inmates made an audacious escape

New Orleans' jail system was troubled decades before 10 inmates made an audacious escape

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In the city that care forgot, the party had made its way into the prison. More than a decade before the recentNew Orleans jailbreak, the city's lawless lockup went viral in a series of videos showing inmates chugging Budweiser, snorting drugs, gambling with handfuls of cash and ejecting bullets from a handgun. "You can get what you want in here," an inmate boasted without a supervisor in sight. "Medication. Pills. Drugs. Heroin." Thejaw-dropping footagefueled a sweeping 2013 court order intended to reform one of the most violent jails in the country — a decaying emblem of the crime and corruption that have long plagued New Orleans. A dozen years and tens of millions of dollars later, much of that makeover remains an aspiration despite oversight from a federal judge and the U.S. Justice Department. The city's correctional chaos reached a new nadir last week when a lone civilian guard monitoring the facility stepped away to get food, allowing 10 inmates to yank open afaulty cell door, removea toiletand escape through a hole in the wall where steel bars had been cut away. No one noticed the men scaling a fence and sprinting across an interstate around 1 a.m.Hours passedbefore the public or even law enforcement was notified. Five of the fugitives remained on the loose Friday as some 200 federal, state and local officerssearched for them. The dysfunction dates back generations and continued even after the 2015 opening of thestate-of-the-artOrleans Justice Center, billed as a $150 million panacea when it replaced its seemingly-cursed predecessor. There were major issues with the building from the outset, including a lack of supervision and adequate housing for mentally ill inmates. "Now we've got a jail with 900 cameras, but that's cold comfort if no one is watching them," said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a New Orleans-based watchdog group. "The inmates-gone-wild videos from years back don't even approach this," Goyeneche added. "If the sheriff or anyone was thinking about terminating the jail consent decree, this escape has ended any serious discussion about that." Jail monitor warned about lax supervision Conditions for catastrophe had been ripe for months. An independent jail monitor warned of "extremely inadequate" staffing levels and dangerously lax supervision — both factors in a jailbreak that exposed figurative and literal holes in security. At the same time, court records show the number of "internal escapes" within the jail has skyrocketed over the past two years, underscoring jailers' inability to govern the nearly 1,400-inmate population. "Too often the failure to follow policy is blamed on the lack of staff or training," the monitors wrote in a report. "Neither is an acceptable excuse." Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson initially deflected blame for the jailbreak, implying without evidence that it was politically motivated as she runs for reelection. Appearing before the City Council several days later, she accepted "full accountability" for the "failures." She told the City Council she needs millions of dollars to fix "outdated surveillance, aging infrastructure, blind spots in supervision and critical staffing shortages." The council pushed back, saying the jail had received substantial injections of taxpayer dollars without sufficient oversight. Perhaps most startlingly, Hutson warned she "cannot guarantee" inmates would not be left unattended in the future. "The jail is the same today as it was a week ago, the same as when we submitted our 2024 budget request, and the same as it has been for years," Hutson said in a statement. 55 years ago, a judge said New Orleans' jail was unconstitutional The escape has drawn new attention to deplorable jail conditions that have persisted for decades in New Orleans, a history of neglect that stands out even in a state long associated with overincarceration. The situation became so dire in 2016 that Hutson's predecessor, Marlin Gusman, was stripped of control of the jail as part of a deal to avert federal receivership. "I think it's gotten worse," said Ricky Peterson, who recalled inmates roaming the facility "at their own leisure" when he was jailed about a decade ago. "As time progressed, it started going down and down and down," added Mario Westbrook, 48, who was jailed around the same time on gun possession and marijuana charges. "You shouldn't have to go through those type of conditions." In 1970, a federal judge declared the overcrowded Orleans Parish Prison to be unconstitutional, saying conditions amounted to cruel and unusual punishment and "shock the conscience as a matter of elemental decency." A later lawsuit alleged that female inmates were shackled during childbirth. Suicides and in-custody deaths abounded, including the fatal beating of a man by two deputies in 2004. Then as now, the sheriff accused the city of chronically underfunding the jail, while city officials countered the lockup was most afflicted by incompetent management. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 wrought unspeakable havoc at the jail, as inmates found themselves stranded in chest-high water and the lockup lost power. A2009 Justice Department reportwarned of "calculated abuse" by deputies who would beat inmates so frequently they developed a code of ordering an inmate to "tie his shoes" when they wanted to brawl. The jailhouse videos A major landmark came in 2013 when a class-action lawsuit resulted in the consent decree, a detailed plan for overhauling jail policies, reducing violence and improving inmate medical treatment. That litigation unearthed the viral jailhouse videos, which also included a 2009 clip of an apparently escaped inmate cavorting on the city's famed Bourbon Street for what the Justice Department described as "an evening of leisure." "The conduct in the video may have occurred several years ago," the Justice Department said at the time, "but the policies, practices and culture that enabled the outrageous conduct remain relevant." ___ Mustian reported from New York.

byRoger Fisher

in

May 23, 2025

New Orleans' jail system was troubled decades before 10 inmates made an audacious escape

New Orleans' jail system was troubled decades before 10 inmates made an audacious escape NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In the city that care forgot...

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South Africa town leader 'sad' about Trump's misuse of white crosses video

South Africa town leader 'sad' about Trump's misuse of white crosses video

By Nellie Peyton and Bhargav Acharya JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -A local representative of an area shown in a video played at the White House said she was "sad" that U.S. President Donald Trump used the footage of hundreds of white crosses as false evidence of mass killings of white South African farmers. Trump showed an aerial shot of a procession of cars moving along a road lined with white crosses during his meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday, as he doubled down on false claims of a white genocide in South Africa. He said the crosses were "burial sites" for over 1,000 white farmers. The shot, whose location and date were verified by Reuters, showed crosses that were actually placed along the road between the town of Newcastle and the rural community of Normandien in 2020 as a tribute to a farming couple who had been murdered, said Bebsie Cronje, a ward councillor for Newcastle, in KwaZulu-Natal province. The crosses, installed to accompany a memorial service for the couple, have since been removed. "The crosses was not a display of how many farm murders (took place) or whatever. It was just a total tribute to the Raffertys," she told Reuters by telephone. "I feel it's very sad that something like this is being used politically." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. South Africa's police minister Senzo Mchunu also said in a press briefing on Friday that the crosses were linked to the murder of the Rafferty couple. Three suspects were arrested and sentenced for their killing and are in jail, he said. "They were sadly murdered by criminals in their home. The incident sparked a very strong protest by the farming community. The crosses symbolised killings on farms over years, they are not graves," he said. He added that claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa were "unfounded and unsubstantiated", saying the country only recorded six farm murders in the first three months of 2025, which included one white person. A total of 5,727 murders took place over that period, down from 6,536 in the same period last year, figures from the police ministry showed. "The history of farm murders in the country has always been distorted and reported in an unbalanced way. The truth is that farm murders have always included African people in more numbers." Cronje said the placing of the crosses was not politically motivated. "There was a group that was very close to the Raffertys. And they organised the gathering and the travelling of everybody there," said Cronje, referring to the long line of vehicles in the video. She said that since then, another white farmer from Newcastle was murdered. But she did not feel that the crimes were linked to race. "I can't say that it's just white people. If a black farmer is killed, it doesn't come to the news," said Cronje, who is from the Democratic Alliance, South Africa's second-biggest political party and a coalition partner of the African National Congress. (Reporting by Nellie Peyton and Bhargav Acharya; additional reporting by Siyanda Mthethwa, editing by Silvia Aloisi and William Maclean)

byRoger Fisher

in

May 23, 2025

South Africa town leader 'sad' about Trump's misuse of white crosses video

South Africa town leader 'sad' about Trump's misuse of white crosses video By Nellie Peyton and Bhargav Acharya JOHANNESBURG (R...

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Uncommon May nor’easter brings rain and snow to New England states just before Memorial Day weekend

Uncommon May nor'easter brings rain and snow to New England states just before Memorial Day weekend

BOSTON (AP) — An unusual Maynor'easterwas pulling away from New England on Friday aftersoaking the regionand setting some record cold temperatures. Massachusetts and Rhode Island received the most rain, getting at least several inches. The coastal town of Kingston, Massachusetts, received 7.13 inches (18.1 centimeters) of rain in a 24-hour period ending early Friday, the National Weather Service said. Drivers were stuck in floodwaters in Cape Cod and fallen trees blocked some streets. There were no reports of injuries. Some higher elevations saw snow, with New Hampshire's Mount Washington reporting 3.4 inches (8.6 centimeters) as of Friday morning. "Would it really be May in Maine without a little rain — and even a touch of snow — for Memorial Day Weekend?" Sugarloaf Mountain posted online. It delayed opening day for its golf club from Friday to Sunday. High temperatures for Thursday were about 20 degrees lower than usual. At least two cities — Concord, New Hampshire, and Portland, Maine — had record cold high temperatures. In Concord, it reached 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8.3 degrees Celsius) for Thursday. That broke the previous record on that date of 51 degrees set in 1939. Portland got up to 49 degrees (9.4 degrees Celsius), breaking the 50-degree record set in 2011. A nor'easter is an East Coast storm that is so named because winds over the coastal area are typically from the northeast, according to the weather service. They usually arrive in the end of fall and winter and bring high winds, rough seas and precipitation in the form of rain or snow. It's rare to see them in May.

byRoger Fisher

in

May 23, 2025

Uncommon May nor’easter brings rain and snow to New England states just before Memorial Day weekend

Uncommon May nor'easter brings rain and snow to New England states just before Memorial Day weekend BOSTON (AP) — An unusual Maynor'...

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