DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - An appeals court has affirmed the conviction of a Grosse Pointe Park man accused of supplying infected cadavers and body parts for medical training.
Arthur Rathburn raised many issues on appeal. He said federal prosecutors treated him unfairly at trial by showing photos of frozen heads and unsanitary lab conditions.
The court ruled that the photos were "potentially unpleasant," but they still were relevant to the government's case.
Rathburn, 64, was convicted of fraud and shipping hazardous materials. Investigators say he regularly provided body parts to medical groups for seminars but didn't disclose that the parts came from people with HIV or hepatitis
He was sentenced a year ago to nine years in prison.
Rathburn maintains his innocence and blames any problems on groups that supplied him with bodies donated for medical research.
He insists the "bequests were put to great use," and that his lab was "perfect."
While prosecutors callled him deplorable, Rathburn's attorney Jim Howarth insisted he is "actually a decent human being.”
“Arthur Rathburn, for good or for bad, was dealing with dead bodies," Howarth said. "We react in a visceral way to people like that. We think of them all as Dr. Frankenstein. He isn’t.”