New York ? A former funeral director in upstate New York was convicted Friday of illegally harvesting body parts from corpses that were then sold to a company that marketed such material for medical procedures.

Jason Gano, 32, was found guilty of removing body parts without permission from 17 corpses.

He was the first of seven people expected to stand trial on charges of illegally dissecting skin, bone and other parts from three dozen bodies being prepared for cremation at three Rochester-area funeral homes in 2005.

During a monthlong trial, the defense argued that a biomedical company in New Jersey called Biomedical Tissue Services sent Gano forged documents indicating relatives had given their consent. But prosecutors countered that Gano systematically allowed the company’s employees to loot bodies without permission.