OCC cadaver leads to another body scandal

Jessica Garrison

COSTA MESA -- Orange Coast College officials who complained about a

partially decomposed cadaver led police to uncover another scandal about

the illegal sale of willed body parts.

Phillip Guyett Jr., the former head of the Willed Body Program at Western

University of Health Sciences in Pomona, was arrested Thursday and faces

charges for embezzlement.

Police and school officials believe he was selling bodies and body parts

that had been willed to Western University and pocketing the money. One

of the bodies was sold to OCC for use in its anatomy classes.

The scandal comes on the heels of a similar one at UCI’s Medical School,

where the former head of that program, Christopher S. Brown, has come

under suspicion for selling body parts for profit.

In the past, OCC has purchased cadavers from UCI. But because none were

available last spring, science professors instead purchased a body from

what they thought was the Western University of Health Sciences in

Pomona, said OCC spokesman Jim Carnett.

This fall, when OCC science professors discovered that the cadaver --

which was supposed to be completely preserved -- was partially

decomposed. When they called Western University to complain, medical

school officials there said they had no record of having sold the body to

OCC.

However, Western officials were already in the process of investigating

Guyett, the former head of the school’s Willed Body Program, for faulty

record-keeping.

Armed with evidence that Guyett also may have been selling cadavers

willed to the university on the side, Western officials contacted the

Pomona Police Department on Wednesday. Officers then obtained a search

warrant for Guyett’s residence in Corona.

What they found was the stuff of suspense-thriller movies: invoices and

paperwork indicating Guyett was in the body-selling business, as well as

surgical tools and medical paraphernalia. Police also found body parts,

including remains of human skulls, and, in a standing freezer, what

appeared to be a human heart and vials of blood.

Pomona police arrested Guyett on Thursday. He was arrested on suspicion

of embezzlement, as well as a multitude of health and safety code

violations.

Back at OCC, Carnett said he does not believe the scandal will affect

science classes at the school -- one of only a handful of community

colleges in the state that offers anatomy students the opportunity to

dissect actual human cadavers.

At any given time, OCC usually has “about eight or nine cadavers,” said

Carnett.

College officials typically purchase the bodies from medical schools at

UC San Diego and UCI, which they keep for a few years and then cremate

and return to the families.

Because they had never before purchased a body from Western University,

OCC officials were not suspicious when they were asked to send a check to

a company called IDK Information Services, the name Guyett was using for

his personal body-selling enterprise.

Western University has promised to send another body to replace the one

that was improperly preserved, said Carnett.

“We treat these bodies with respect,” said Carnett. “Our students realize

that these are human beings.”