The owner of a now-closed Phoenix body donation facility has been found civilly liable for mishandling human remains in about half of the 21 cases filed by families of the dead.
A jury Tuesday awarded $58 million to 10 of 21 plaintiffs in the case against Stephen Gore, owner of the Biological Resource Center of Arizona.
His business was accused of claiming the donated bodies would be used for medical research, when in at least two cases it knew the human remains would be sold for military testing.
Gore denied the allegations in the lawsuit but acknowledged when pleading guilty to felony charges his firm provided vendors with human tissue that was contaminated and used the donations against the wishes of the donors.
Gore’s attorney says clients signed consent forms.
