Woman charged with selling body parts gets pre-trial release
A Pulaski County woman scheduled for trial next month in connection with the sale of stolen body parts from UAMS was released from jail Wednesday after the U.S. Attorney’s office and the woman’s attorney presented a release plan to a federal magistrate judge.
Candace Chapman Scott, 37, of Little Rock, was indicted by a federal grand jury on April 5, 2023, on multiple conspiracy and fraud charges and has been held in federal custody since her arrest by the FBI on April 28, 2023. On Feb. 6, her attorney, Birc Morledge of Little Rock, filed a motion for a detention hearing with U.S. District Judge Brian Miller, the presiding judge in the case. On Wednesday, Scott appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Benecia Moore for the detention hearing.
Scott is accused of stealing body parts from the mortuary where she worked that contracted with the UAMS College of Medicine Anatomical Gifts Program to provide cremation services. Scott is accused of selling the remains to a self-described oddities collector from Pennsylvania she met over the internet.
Jeremy Lee Pauley, 41, of Thompson, Penn., pleaded guilty on Sept. 7, 2023, to conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen property before a federal judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and is facing up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced. Scott is accused of selling numerous body parts to Pauley from October 2021 to July 2022. Pauley was also accused of purchasing purloined body parts from the Harvard Medical School in Boston, for which the former morgue director and his wife, Cedric and Denise Lodge, and three others were indicted last June in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
The indictment against Scott indicated that she had
allegedly received $10,975 from Pauley in 16 separate PayPal transactions for nine shipments of 20 boxes and packages of suspected human remains that were sent to two different addresses in Pennsylvania between Nov. 2, 2021, and July 9, 2022.
Scott was escorted to court Wednesday by U.S. marshals from the Greene County jail in Paragould. As the hearing got underway, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Jegley told Moore that she and Morledge had worked out a release plan for Scott that had assuaged the government’s concerns that Scott might flee to avoid prosecution.
“Last April, when we were last here,” Jegley began, “the United States previously requested detention on the basis that Ms. Scott posed a serious risk of flight. Since that time, the United States has received additional information concerning Ms. Scott and her mental state.”
Last June, Scott was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation at a Bureau of Prisons facility in Los Angeles, Calif., the results of which were filed under seal in September. Jegley asked that Scott be placed under conditions of home detention under stringent restrictions and that her whereabouts be closely monitored by the U.S. Probation Office. Jegley also requested a no-contact order that would prohibit Scott from contacting any victims, witnesses or others connected to the case, and that she also be prohibited from having any contact with Pauley or with Mathew Lampi, 53, of East Bethel, Minn.
Lampi, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge of interstate transport of stolen goods on Jan. 30 in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, was accused of purchasing body parts from Pauley, some of which Pauley was believed to have purchased from Scott. He is facing a possible maximum penalty of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced.
In addition, Jegley asked Moore to prohibit Scott from seeking employment in the funeral industry or any other business “with access to human remains.”
As Jegley listed the conditions required by her office to agree to Scott’s release, Morledge rose once to ask that the order make clear that Scott be allowed to leave her home for emergency medical care, if needed, and that she be allowed to travel to Morledge’s Little Rock office. Jegley offered no objection to the request.
“The United States also requests random drug testing and drug treatment as recommended by probation,” Jegley continued, “as well as mental health treatment.”
“We would agree with all of that,” Morledge said.
As Moore finalized the release conditions, Morledge asked that Scott be put on a curfew between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., which he said would provide a 12-hour window during the day for her to work once she finds employment.
Jegley, however, remained adamant that Scott be released under the more restrictive conditions of home detention and be required to seek approval from the U.S. Probation Office to leave her home for any reason other than those prescribed in Moore’s order.
“I’m fine with home detention,” Morledge acquiesced.
Moore outlined the conditions of her release to Scott and warned her of the repercussions that could result if she were to be found in violation. Noting that Scott has an Arkansas medical marijuana card, Moore told her that because marijuana is still illegal for any purpose under federal law, a drug screen positive for marijuana — just like any other illegal drug or unauthorized prescription drug — would result in a violation.
“You’ll have to find another way to medicate those conditions,” Moore said.
Moore said a violation could result in Scott’s being subjected to arrest and to a revocation hearing and could ultimately land her back into federal custody until her case is resolved.
“Based on the complexity of your case,” Moore said, “that could be a long time.”
Scott is currently scheduled to go on trial March 25 before Miller, but Morledge said after the hearing that the trial date will likely be continued.
“We’re still in the process of negotiating with the U.S. Attorney’s office as to a plea offer,” Morledge told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “If we can work everything out, there will be no need to go to trial.”
The office of the U.S. Attorney in Little Rock is asking that anyone with information or who thinks they may have been affected by this case contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office by email at USAARE-SubmitInfo@usdoj.gov.
A UAMS spokeswoman said by email that the medical school has taken steps to enhance the security of its anatomical gift program.
“UAMS is extremely grateful to those who unselfishly donate their bodies so they can be used in research and educating medical students,” Leslie Taylor, UAMS vice chancellor for communications and marketing, said in an email. “None of the thefts happened at UAMS but rather at a crematorium. An in-depth and detailed investigation by the FBI showed no wrongdoing by UAMS or its employees. We have not changed our processes, but we have changed crematoriums. We look forward to reaching a conclusion in this case and to justice being served.”
The federal cases in Arkansas and in Pennsylvania hinge on the interstate transportation of body parts that were stolen from research hospitals and not the trafficking of the body parts themselves.
All of the defendants in the Pennsylvania case are charged in one form or another with conspiracy and with interstate transport of stolen property and face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
In Arkansas, Scott was charged by a federal grand jury with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, commission of mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and interstate transportation of stolen property.
If convicted, she faces as much as 35 years in prison.
There have been a few federal prosecutions in recent years of similar cases, but such cases are rare.
In 2018, a Michigan man, Arthur Rathburn of Grosse Pointe Park, was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for selling diseased body parts to medical educators. Rathburn was charged with fraud and violations of federal hazardous materials shipping laws.
In January 2023, Megan Hess and Shirley Koch, operators of a Montrose, Colo., funeral home, were sentenced to 20 years and 15 years in prison, respectively, after pleading guilty to federal mail fraud violations.
The two admitted to stealing bodies and body parts over an eight-year period and selling them to body brokers.