Harvard settles for $53M in stolen body parts case

Harvard University agreed to pay $53 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by families of people whose donated body parts were sold by a former morgue manager at its medical school. The settlement, announced Monday by Harvard Medical School Dean of Faculty Dr. George Q. Daley and Dean for Medical Education Dr. Bernard Chang, was reached to prevent extended litigation, the deans said.

The criminal case ended in December, when Cedric Lodge, 58, was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to one charge of interstate transportation of stolen goods. Harvard fired Lodge in June 2023, after the FBI secured an indictment against him. His wife, Denise Lodge, 65, received a one-year prison sentence for her role.

Lodge ran the morgue at Harvard Medical School, where cadavers donated through the Anatomical Gift Program are used for anatomy instruction. Once students finished with the remains, he was supposed to have them cremated. An FBI investigation found that he instead sold brains, skin, hands, faces and other body parts to collectors, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Lodge "took the remains without the knowledge or permission of his employer, the donor or the donor's family," the U.S. attorney's office said. He transported them to his home in New Hampshire, and he and his wife shipped the remains to buyers in other states or handed them over in person. The arrangement ran undetected from about 2018 to March 2023. Harvard said it learned of the issue from the FBI and stayed quiet at the FBI's request until an indictment was secured.