Charges filed against man accused of selling cadavers to OCC

Charges were filed late Wednesday against a Corona man suspected of

selling bodies -- including one to OCC -- willed to a program he ran and

then pocketing the profits.

Phillip Joe Guyett, 32, was charged with felony embezzlement and

illegally removing cadavers from Western University in Pomona, where he

ran the school’s willed-body program.

OCC administrators noticed a partially decomposed cadaver that was

supposed to be preserved last month and called Western University to see

what had happened. They were told there was no record of Western having

sold the body to the Costa Mesa-based college.

Western officials were already investigating Guyett for faulty

record-keeping when they received a call from OCC. So far, they have

looked at more than 30 cases involving Guyett’s company, California

Anatomical Society, and its accompanying paperwork.

The case almost mirrors a scandal at UCI’s medical school, where the

former head of the same program is under suspicion of selling body parts

for profit.

OCC used to purchase cadavers from UCI for medical research, but none

were available to the school last spring. OCC professors decided to find

another resource, which happened to be Western University.

-- Greg Risling