PORTLAND (AP) – Maine’s attorney general has appointed a special prosecutor to direct the state’s investigation into a now-suspended program that harvested brains at the Medical Examiner’s Office.

The appointment of Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Murphy follows disclosures that members of Rowe’s department had connections to the program that sent 99 brains to a Maryland lab betewen 1999 and 2003.

“I want to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest with respect to the investigation and subsequent decision-making regarding this matter,” Attorney General Stephen Rowe wrote in a statement released Tuesday.

Murphy, 48, was named special prosecutor last month after state and federal prosecutors announced they were working together.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland is looking into whether any federal laws were broken. Though Murphy is an employee of that office, he is not involved with the federal investigation, he said.

In the state probe, Rowe has asked the special prosecutor to determine whether any civil or criminal Maine laws were violated.