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Press Release

Athens Man Sentenced For Stealing And Selling Medical Teaching Items From University

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Ohio
CONTACT: Fred Alverson
Public Affairs Officer

COLUMBUS, OHIO – Weston Henri Moquin, 29, of Athens, Ohio was sentenced in U.S. District Court to serve 15 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for stealing and selling human bones and plastinated human remains from the university anatomy lab where he worked.

Carter Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and Kevin R. Cornelius, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the sentence handed down today by Senior U.S. District Judge Peter C. Economus.

Moquin pleaded guilty on January 7, 2014 to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property and one count of theft from a program receiving federal funds. Moquin stole materials used as teaching aids at Ohio University between July 2011 and June 2012. The materials included loose human bones, skulls, skeletons, plastinated human remains, autopsy saws and other materials that had been purchased by the university. Moquin sold the items primarily through his eBay account. Most of the stolen goods were shipped to customers in California, Utah and Oregon. 

“While the general public would have been uncomfortable with keeping and packaging human remains, defendant’s experience became his ‘special skill’ that facilitated the theft,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Solove told the court. “The university representatives were shocked to learn of the thefts – the very nature of the material made the items an unlikely target for theft, except for someone like defendant Moquin.”

Moquin was ordered to pay $78,018.85 in restitution to the university. “The university also spent countless man hours to update the tracking system to prevent such a theft in the future,” Solove wrote.

U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the investigation by the FBI as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah A. Solove who prosecuted the case.

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Updated July 23, 2015