Judge levies $50,000 fine on defunct Arkansas funeral home

1/21/2015
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STEPHEN B. THORNTON
A man loads something into a truck behind Arkansas Funeral Care at 2620 West Main Street in Jacksonville, Wednesday.
1/21/2015 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STEPHEN B. THORNTON A man loads something into a truck behind Arkansas Funeral Care at 2620 West Main Street in Jacksonville, Wednesday.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza imposed a $50,000 fine Tuesday on a now-closed Jacksonville funeral home accused of criminally mishandling corpses.

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The fine is in addition to a $10,000 civil fine state regulators levied against the owners of Arkansas Funeral Care LLC earlier this year.

Piazza could have fined the funeral home company up to $100,000 on the five felony counts of abuse of a corpse to which it pleaded guilty last month in an arrangement to drop criminal charges against the father and son who controlled the company, LeRoy Wood and Rodney Jarrett Wood.

The Woods each controlled 35 percent of the company, with the remaining 30 percent divided among 14 others.

Prosecutors had filed 13 counts of the Class D felony charge, one for every set of human remains alleged to have been criminally mishandled at the Jacksonville funeral home.

More than two dozen decaying bodies were found improperly stored at the Main Street business during a January 2015 inspection by the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors prompted by a complaint of a former worker, Mike Jones.

In a statement submitted to the court, LeRoy Wood said he had fired Jones that month for stealing from clients.

The funeral parlor was shut down about a week later for violating storage regulations, and authorities removed 31 bodies and 23 sets of cremains.

That same month, LeRoy Wood gave up his funeral director license along with the operating and crematory licensing for Arkansas Funeral Care while paying a $10,000 fine.

The defendants, along with the funeral home's manager, 64-year-old Edward Snow, were arrested in June, and prosecutors filed criminal charges in July.

Snow is scheduled to stand trial next month, although his attorney, Marjorie Rogers, said she's in negotiations with prosecutors to resolve the criminal charges, that together carry a potential 78 years in prison and $130,000 fine.

Attorney Dustin McDaniel, representing LeRoy Wood, asked the judge to suspend the fine with the condition that the Woods never work again in the funeral industry.

The company is defunct, and his client is "financially devastated," said McDaniel, the former Arkansas attorney general.

"Realistically, the state's not going to collect," McDaniel told the judge. "It's truly blood from a turnip."

McDaniel also asked the judge to consider that the father and son face the potential for future fines because of a consumer-protection lawsuit filed by the Arkansas attorney general's office that accuses the company and the Woods of violating the state's deceptive trade practices act, which can bring a $10,000 per violation fine.

The Woods and Arkansas Funeral Care still face another seven lawsuits in Hempstead, Lonoke, Miller and Pulaski counties after settling two other suits, court records show.

The only testimony from the defense was from Wood's wife of 12 years, 74-year-old Doris Wood. She and her husband live off Social Security and a small civil service pension she has, she told the judge.

She said that she paid the $10,000 regulatory fine using the proceeds from selling her late parents' home and that the family has had to borrow money from friends to pay their legal fees.

Although property records show her to be the defunct company's secretary/treasurer, Doris Wood told the judge she did not know much about its finances or its remaining debts because her stepson handled the finances.

The company had $28 in a checking account, she testified.

The funeral home has been sold, Doris Wood said, but she did not know for how much. That sale could not be independently confirmed.

The New Hope Apostolic Tabernacle Church in Jacksonville has owned the land where the business sits since 1994, property records show.

Deputy prosecutor Tonia Acker questioned the extent of the company's financial difficulties, presenting the funeral home's federal tax returns for 2013 and 2014 to the judge.

The returns showed the business had $2.2 million in gross sales, with $217,914 paid to partners, in 2014 and gross revenue of $1.96 million in 2013, with $80,000 paid to the partners.

The tax returns show the business was making lots of money, Acker said, accusing the Woods of cutting corners to increase their income.

The prosecutor questioned a written statement LeRoy Wood submitted to the court that indicated that problems at the home began while he was out with illness for 10 days beginning the first of January 2015.

She showed 49 photographs of the bodies found in the funeral home and the condition of the premises that had been taken during the funeral board probe.

Some of the bodies had been held for weeks before state investigators found them in January 2015 and were severely decayed, with some leaking fluids and growing mold, Acker said.

The funeral home's cooler was overflowing with remains, she said, describing haphazard storage of bodies.

The business continued to receive bodies from clients even during the funeral board's investigation, she told the judge.

"It doesn't seem to indicate any regard for the families [of the deceased]," she said. "They are all very traumatized. They don't want to relive it."

McDaniel disputed Acker's conclusions, saying that she did not present any evidence to dispute the Woods' financial circumstances and that she had not shown anything criminal about how the remains were handled.

He acknowledged that Arkansas Funeral Care had been negligent and should have had better management and communication, but he questioned whether those failings constituted criminal abuse under the law.

According to articles of organization submitted to the court, the business' minority owners include J. Dale Calhoon and JoAnna Calhoon, with a 5 percent share, and Wayne Stover Family Trust and Larry L. Nelson with 4 percent each.

Two-percent owners are Randy and Karon Weatherford Family Trust, JoAnn Ouzts Family Trust; Wayburn and Carol Penn Family Trust; Grissom Family Revocable Trust, John and Annabelle Davis Family Trust and Cole Family Revocable Trust.

Smith Living Trust, Kelley Living Trust and Oliver Family Trust each owned 1 percent, while Loren D. Jones had a 0.25 percent interest and William C. Hutchins Revocable Trust had 1.75 percent.

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