NEW YORK — A judge on Monday convicted a man of secretly cutting up corpses — including that of “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke — as part of a multimillion-dollar body parts scheme.

Chris Aldorasi was found guilty of enterprise corruption and other criminal counts at a trial in Brooklyn. Aldorasi, who chose to have a judge hear his case instead of a jury, faces up to 60 years in prison when he is sentenced May 28.

Prosecutors argued that Aldorasi and other so-called “cutters,” working with unscrupulous funeral parlor owners, took bone and tissue without family permission, then sold the parts for use in transplants and other medical procedures.

District Attorney Charles Hynes said the case highlights the need for new laws criminalizing misconduct in the funeral home industry.

“The victims of this conspiracy can finally rest in peace, since one more of the monsters who defiled their corpses has been convicted,” Hynes said.

Defense attorney Robert Koppelman said his client’s role in the plot had been distorted and exaggerated by prosecutors, and that there would be an appeal.

Aldorasi “made no decisions,” Koppelman said after the verdict. “He didn’t get a split of the money.”

The scheme’s ringleader, Michael Mastromarino, pleaded guilty earlier this year and admitted that he didn’t get consent for any of the hundreds of bodies he plundered.

At Aldorasi’s trial, Cooke’s daughter testified that she had never spoken to Aldorasi or Mastromarino about harvesting her father’s body.

“Definitely not,” said the 59-year-old Susan Cooke Kittredge, who lives in Vermont, when asked if she had given permission. “My father would have been against that.”

Another cutter, Lee Cruceta, pleaded guilty, testified against Aldorasi, and is facing up to 20 years in prison. Another defendant’s case is pending.

 

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