Lodge has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to transfer stolen goods valued at $5,000 or more and selling the goods to two co-defendants. His trial is scheduled to begin May 5.
An attorney for Cedric Lodge , 57, of Goffstown, N.H., filed a motion Monday to dismiss the case pending against him in federal court in Williamsport, Pa., records show.
The former manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue is asking a federal judge in Pennsylvania to dismiss charges that he stole body parts from his employer and sold them on a subterranean market for cadaver parts.
In the motion to dismiss, Lodge’s lawyer, Patrick A. Casey homed in on the specific language of the two statues that his client stands accused of violating.
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“Counts 1 and 2 of the Indictment against Mr. Lodge allege that he conspired to, and transported, ‘goods, wares, merchandise, securities, or money’ in interstate commerce in the form of human remains whose value exceeded [a] $5,000 jurisdictional amount,” Casey wrote.
Body parts don’t meet the definition of such goods, so the indictment should be dismissed, he said.
“Courts are in agreement in finding that human remains cannot constitute ‘personal property,’” he wrote.
Prosecutors hadn’t filed a response to the motion as of early Thursday afternoon.
The body parts at issue, Casey said, also can’t meet the $5,000 minimum value for stolen goods necessary to sustain the federal charge.
Casey wrote that “human remains cannot satisfy this jurisdictional element because they are not ‘property’ and have no compensable value.”
Lodge’s wife, Denise Lodge, was also charged in connection with the case. She pleaded guilty in April to related charges and awaits sentencing.
Cedric Lodge managed the medical school’s morgue for more than two decades before he and his wife were indicted in June 2023 on allegations that they spent years diverting organs and cadaver parts that had been donated to the medical school’s Anatomical Gift Program. Five others were also indicted for allegedly participating in the operation.
The gift program accepts human remains willed to the school for training and research purposes.
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Authorities allege that between 2018 and early 2023, Cedric Lodge stole portions of the cadavers — including heads, brains, skin, and bones — and brought them back to his home in New Hampshire or sold them on an illicit market to collectors. He’s also accused of allowing buyers into the morgue to pick out their purchases.
He, along with two alleged buyers — Katrina Maclean of Salem and Joshua Taylor of Pennsylvania — have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
According to court records, Taylor made 39 online payments to an account controlled by Denise Lodge, totaling more than $37,000. Taylor sometimes typed a memo with the payments, such as $1,000 for “head number 7″ and $200 for “braiiiiiins,” according to previous Globe reports.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.
Cedric Lodge, former Harvard Med School morgue manager, seeks dismissal of stolen body part case
