Different strokes, I guess

Weird ol' New Jersey.

1 Severed Hand; 2 Indictments
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

A grand jury in Middlesex County, N.J., has indicted a doctor charged with removing a hand from a cadaver and giving it to an exotic dancer, officials said yesterday.

The doctor, Ahmed Rashed, was a student at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark in 2002 when he gave the hand to the dancer, Linda E. Kay, of South Plainfield, said Judson H. Hamlin, an assistant Middlesex County prosecutor.

The two were indicted on Thursday — Dr. Rashed on two counts of robbery and Ms. Kay on two counts of receiving stolen property. They will be arraigned within a few weeks, Mr. Hamlin said, and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors said that Dr. Rashed, 26, who now practices in Los Angeles, had frequently visited the Hott 22 strip club in Union, N.J., while a student and had befriended Ms. Kay, 31, there.

The police, responding to an emergency call at Ms. Kay’s house on July 21, found the hand in a jar of formaldehyde on her bedroom dresser.

Ms. Kay’s lawyer, Donald A. DiGioia, said yesterday that he had not seen a copy of the indictment.

“Obviously the case has taken on a level of interest because of her background and occupation,” he said. “All I can say is that different people have different interests.”

Feeling a bit like that hand this morning.