Funeral home under investigation

[Aymerlu 3]

Here's a new article. I'm still having a hard time driving by that area.

Digg it del.icio.us AIM Allegations at funeral home stun Columbia

By JASON NOBLE

The Star’s Jefferson City correspondent

COLUMBIA | Harold Warren Sr. has done business here for four decades. He’s served the city and the community. By all accounts, he’s well-liked and widely respected.

That’s what makes the allegations of mishandled bodies at Warren Funeral Chapel as baffling as they are gruesome.

The Missouri attorney general’s office sued Warren, his son, Harold Warren Jr., and their business last week, after investigators said they discovered two bodies that had been at the facility for nearly a year and numerous other health and business violations.

Among the other findings, according to the lawsuit: a bag containing human organs was left in a casket with another body; bodies were not properly refrigerated; and embalming facilities were not properly cleaned.

The lawsuit said Harold Warren Sr. handled bodies with his bare hands in the presence of the investigators.

The state and an attorney for the Warrens on Wednesday agreed to a restraining order that will keep the funeral home closed for 15 days pending a hearing next month in Boone County Circuit Court.

Neither of the Warrens appeared in court, and the Warrens have not commented on the charges.

When reached in person at the funeral home on Wednesday, Harold Warren Sr. told a Kansas City Star reporter to leave the property.

Their attorney, Dan Viets, said he was hopeful an agreement could be worked out between the Warrens and the state so that the business could reopen at the end of the restraining order period.

Viets said he had known Harold Warren Sr. for 35 years, but had only been hired on Wednesday and knew few details about the case.

Community leaders in the university town expressed disbelief that the Warrens could have done the things alleged in the lawsuit.

Harold Warren Sr., 75, has been a pillar of the community for decades, said Mayor Darwin Hindman.

He served two terms on the City Council in the early 1970s and more recently has been a mayoral appointment to several boards and commissions. Earlier this decade, Hindman said, he appointed Warren to a race relations task force in the city.

“His reputation, honestly, is excellent,” said Hindman, who is on vacation and was unaware of the lawsuit until contacted by The Star.

Lorenzo Lawson, bishop at Chosen Generation Ministries in Columbia, expressed similar surprise.

“I’ve always known him to be a man of integrity and he’s always been very helpful to the people of the community,” Lawson said of Harold Warren Sr. “So when this whole incident came out, I was shocked and baffled by what was going on.”

Lawson said he has presided over numerous funerals at the facility since 2000 and until a recent service had never noticed anything unusual. When Lawson’s own uncle died, Warren handled the funeral services, and even helped Lawson’s family manage the expenses.

The home primarily serves the city’s African-American community, Lawson said. The wide, red-brick, white-columned facility is situated along a mostly residential street.

“I would say in the African-American community they are one of the families that has long, deep roots and has always been well-respected,” he said.

The lawsuit, however, lists numerous findings made by inspectors from the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors in three visits earlier this month.

The investigation was apparently prompted by complaints following a July 5 visitation and memorial service at the funeral home.

Lawson officiated a funeral on July 5 and said he and others noticed a “foul odor” during the service.

http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/727721.html

[Sonshyne 2]

That is truly a disgrace. I do agree race has nothing to do with it. Its disrespectful to the families and they should be shut down. As an African American, I find it repulsive to know that the NAACP would step in on a matter such as this when it is clearly a case of this funeral home mishandling their affairs. There are lots of injustices in this world that the NAACP could be fighting. This is definitely not one of them. My heart goes out the families of these poor people who have had to deal with this establishment.

I agree, this isn't a battle for them to fight!!

This is about bad (poor) business