Former director of UCLA’s Willed Body Program pleads guilty to cadaver scheme

In May, the former director of UCLA’s Willed Body Program, Henry Reid, was indicted by a grand jury for selling body parts to businessman Ernest Nelson who resold them to medical research companies. The LA Times reports that today, Mr. Reid plead guilty to felony charges that he damaged or destroyed property worth more than $1 million and conspiracy to commit grand theft in a “body-parts-for-profit” scheme.

The Times reports that from 1999 to 2004, Reid and businessman Ernest Nelson conspired to defraud the program of its donor bodies for personal financial gain. Reid allegedly sold human body parts from UCLA’s program to Nelson and then deposited thousands of dollars of proceeds of those sales into his personal bank account.

Reid, an Anaheim native, will be sentenced to four years, four months in state prison under a plea crafted by the District Attorney’s Office. In exchange, Reid agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in their case against Nelson. Reid will also be required to pay restitution to UCLA’s Willed Body Program of between $100,000 to $1 million. He will be sentenced in January.

Comments about this post can be directed to Irvine Criminal Defense Attorney William Weinberg at 949.474.8008.