Payouts Arise in Cadaver Scandal

UC Irvine’s cadaver program paid more than $15,000 over three years to companies that are now under scrutiny in a criminal investigation, according to financial records released Friday.

The three companies are linked to Willed Body Program Director Christopher S. Brown, who was fired last month amid suspicions that he or associates profited from the program. The companies include Mysteriously Magical Effects, a movie special-effects company whose owner said he paid some of his earnings back to Brown for helping repair the medical school’s skeletons.

Payouts to the three companies represent a small fraction of the program’s estimated $110,000 annual expenses, counting salaries and benefits, and far less than the $200,000 the university has spent investigating the Willed Body Program scandal, said William Parker, a UCI associate executive vice chancellor.

But “the dollar amount is not the issue,” he said. “The issue is the diversion of funds and, more than that, the abuse of the families. What we really care about is respect for the wishes of the families, the reputation of the university and the integrity of our programs.”

UCI officials probably would have permitted the Willed Body Program to do business with the companies involved despite the conflicts if Brown had disclosed his connections and sought approval, Parker said.

Also on Friday, UCI administrators said they will ask outside forensic experts to identify four of 26 cadavers in the Willed Body Program morgue. Administrators have been unable to identify them because a computer virus wiped out many Willed Body Program records. Identification of bodies requires expertise not available on campus, Parker said.

The identification is important because at least two families have questioned whether the program returned the proper remains.

Allegations of wrongdoing at the program surfaced publicly last month when the university announced Brown’s dismissal. UCI officials have said he is suspected of selling cadaver parts for personal gain and having business ties to companies that profited from his program. Brown has not been charged with a crime.

Reports also have surfaced that at least two donated cadavers were used without university permission in an unauthorized private anatomy class in the Willed Body Program morgue and that families may have received the wrong remains or been improperly billed for the return of ashes.

Neither Brown nor his lawyers could be reached Friday, but the former director has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and says he kept his supervisors informed of his activities.

According to the documents released Friday:

* The Willed Body Program paid $12,441 in 1999 to Harry’s Transport, which had a contract to deliver cadavers donated to the program. Brown briefly held an interest in the company, last owned by Jeffrey Frazier of Irvine, but has said that he divested himself when he realized it might pose a conflict of interest. Frazier also owns Replica Notes, a company that university officials say ran an unauthorized anatomy lab at the medical school and may have improperly billed families for the return of cremated ashes.

* Osteoplastics--a company owned by Brown’s wife, Venus Mikulich--was paid $625 in November 1998. The university used Osteoplastics to maintain medical school skeletons that might be deteriorating from wear or jostling, campus officials said.

* The program paid a third company, Mysteriously Magical Effects, $2,380 between 1996 and 1998. Brown’s resume lists him as an executive director of the company, which created “make-up and prosthetics for movie special effects.” The ledger records another $2,170 in payments to the company in 1996--money that was refunded in 1997. Parker could not explain the payments and refunds but said they could reflect bookkeeping errors that were corrected.

Patrick Wheelock, the 34-year-old owner of Mysteriously Magical Effects of Anaheim, said Friday, however, that he received nearly four times the reported sum. The company was paid $8,879 by the Willed Body Program to repair skeletons and make 20 resin skull replicas in 1997 and 1998, he said.

Wheelock said Brown--whom he met in 1994 when the two worked as seasonal employees at Knott’s Berry Farm’s Halloween attraction--asked him to do the work because he could find no one else and his supervisors were threatening to fire him.

Brown’s resume notwithstanding, Wheelock said, Mysteriously Magical has no board of directors. Wheelock said he paid Brown a maximum of $500 to help him with some of the work.