Ex-Carlow U President Denies Cadaver For Lab Space Agreement With WechtPOSTED: 4:54 pm EDT March 10,
2008 PITTSBURGH -- More testimony regarding trading cadavers for lab space was the focus of the trial against a former Allegheny County coroner on Monday.  Check Out Bob Mayo's UpdateDr. Cyril Wecht, who has led inquiries into the deaths of Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey and Vincent Foster among others, is accused of using his government staff as bookkeepers, secretaries, couriers and gofers for his family and his private pathology practice.Prosecutors said Wecht, 76, illegally used the county workers to cut costs in his private practice, which grossed nearly $9 million from 1997 through 2004. He never made more than $64,000 a year as county coroner.On Monday, former Carlow University president, Sister Grace Ann Geibel, was back on the stand with prosecutors pressing her for details of how her university's arrangement with Wecht worked.The government alleges that Wecht traded unclaimed bodies from the coroner's office in exchange for lab space."To trade bodies, cadavers, for space, is entirely false," Geibel said. "There was never an agreement that related to the trading of bodies and the securing of space."Geibel repeated her insistence that it isn't true, saying she suggested offering the lab space not for bodies but for Wecht's expertise."I had given Dr. Wecht use of the lab space in 2003 for the purpose of establishing an academic program," she said.Prosecutors asked Geibel if it would not show respect for the dead to autopsy the body of Charlotte Keegel, who had once written she did not want to be an organ donor.Geibel agreed, but she also agreed with the defense there was no suggestion Wecht saw Keegel's letter.The final witness of the day was Mark Rohosky, the estranged husband of Michelle Rohosky, whose body was autopsied at Carlow. He said he did not give permission for her body to be autopsied.When testimony ended for the day, Wecht's defense team was grilling Rohosky over the coroner's office's difficulty in tracking him down and the fact he hadn't lived with his wife since 1980.Testimony is set to resume on Monday. Related Links: More County NewsGet RSS | E-Mail Alerts Copyright 2008 by ThePittsburghChannel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | Special Coverage
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