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Kansas man sentenced for performing illegal autopsies

TOPEKA, Kan. — A judge has ruled that a Kansas man can no longer work in the state and must pay more than $700,000 in fines and restitution, after he was found guilty of performing autopsies illegally.

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Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced Shawn Parcells permanent ban from doing business in the state in a news release. Three corporate entities controlled by Parcells were also banned in the state.

Parcells was convicted in November on charges that he provided illegal autopsies, The Associated Press reported. Parcells also pleaded guilty in May to a federal wire fraud charge in connection to the autopsies.

Families told KCTV that they had hired Parcells, known as “Professor Lynn,” to perform autopsies, but said that they either never got reports or that the reports they did receive contained incorrect information. At least one family accused Parcells of losing body parts, KCTV reported.

Parcells was most famously hired by the family of Michael Brown, who was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, to conduct an autopsy, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

Parcells, a self-taught pathology assistant with no formal education, was accused of conducting autopsies in Wabaunsee County and not completing them according to state law, including not having a licensed pathologist present, the AP reported.

A judge ordered Parcell and three corporations associated with him to pay $254,762.98 in restitution to 82 customers who paid for autopsy services, Schmidt said in the news release. Parcells and the corporations were also fined $200,000 for violating the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, $200,000 for violating the Kansas False Claims Act and ordered to pay Waubaunsee County $49,600 in damages. Parcells and the corporations were also ordered to pay $60,000 in investigative and receivership fees.

Over the course of the investigation, the state seized more than 1,700 biological samples and said that soon, families will be notified so those samples can be released, the AP reported.