Essex County Prosecutor Paula T. Dow announced on Monday that a former Newark funeral director has been sentenced to five years in prison for participating in an illegal body parts scheme that collected bones, tissue and skin from corpses to be sold to a lucrative transplant market. Stephen K. Finley, 46, of Murray Hill, who pleaded guilty to 2nd degree Disturbing/Desecrating Human Remains in February, was sentenced by Essex County Superior Court Judge Peter J. Vazquez.

According to Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Jane Plaisted, between 2004 and 2005, Finley knowingly, intentionally and unlawfully entered into an arrangement with Michael Mastromarino, 46, a former oral surgeon from Fort Lee, by allowing a team of "cutters" to illegally harvest body parts from approximately 40 deceased individuals without obtaining proper consent from next of kin. In return, Finley received approximately $1,000 for each body.

Finley is one of the two New Jersey morticians linked to a ring that secretly harvested body parts from more than 1,000 cadavers in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania between 2001 and 2005. Mastromarino, who headed the now-defunct Biomedical Tissue Services and was considered the scheme’s ringleader, pleaded guilty in New York last year and is currently serving 18-54 years in prison. The ring allegedly used forged documents that altered the ages of elderly donors and concealed the fact that some may have died of cancer or other diseases.

"The gruesome activity engaged in by this funeral director was utterly revolting," said Prosecutor Dow. "This defendant had absolutely no regard for the common decency owed to the victims and the victims’ loved ones."

In 2007, the New Jersey Legislature amended the Theft of Human Remains statute to raise the penalty to a first-degree crime. On January 6, 2009, the New Jersey State Board of Mortuary Science, through a consent order, permanently revoked Finley’s license to operate a funeral home in New Jersey. On April 14, 2009, the Board of Mortuary Science said Finley violated the January the consent order and imposed severe monetary penalties.

Monday in court, Judge Vazquez denied the State’s motion to withdraw the original plea offer but said the State could pursue additional criminal penalties against the defendant for practicing mortuary science after his license had been revoked. Prosecutor Dow commended Essex County Prosecutor Detective Patrick Todd with the investigation.