Posted on 09/28/2005 3:39:32 PM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker
FEMA Katrina Funeral Contractor Desecrated Corpses
Division of Funeral Corp. Charged With Desecrating Corpses Hired to Collect Deceased Victims of Hurricane Katrina
By Jason Leopold
A funeral services company which recently learned that one of its subsidiaries is negotiating a lucrative contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to remove dead bodies in areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, paid $100 million to settle a class-action lawsuit several years ago alleging the company desecrated thousands of corpses, and dumped bodies into mass graves.
Moreover, the company paid $200,000 to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that sought to expose that two members of the Texas funeral commission, the agency which regulates the funeral industry, were actually employees of the company they were supposed to monitor--an obvious conflict-of-interest.
In the civil matter, which took place at two Jewish cemeteries in Florida, the plaintiff's attorney said that SCI secretly broke into and opened burial vaults and dumped remains in a wooded area where the remains may have been consumed by wild animals.
Additionally, SCI buried "remains in locations other than those purchased by plaintiffs; crushing burial vaults in order to make room for other vaults; burying remains on top of the other rather than side-by-side; secretly digging up and removing remains; secretly burying remains head-to-foot rather than side-by-side; secretly mixing body parts and remains from different individuals; secretly allowing plots owned by one part to be occupied by a different person; secretly selling plots in rows where there were more graves assigned than the rows could accommodate; secretly allowed graves to encroach on other plots; secretly sold plots so narrow that the plots could not accommodate standard burial vaults; secretly participated in the desecration of gravesites and markers and failed to exercise reasonable care in handling the plaintiff's loved ones remains."
Kenyon International. a unit of SCI, is presently in charge of the delicate task of collecting the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dead bodies in the aftermath of the hurricane.
Details about SCI's mass graves and mutilated corpses emerged publicly five years ago. According to the lawsuit, a former employee of Menorah Gardens & Funeral Chapels in West Palm Beach, which is owned by SCI, showed investigators human remains discarded in a wooded area near the cemetery.
Attorneys representing the families of the deceased who were buried at Menorah Gardens said they obtained a so-called "burial book" included gruesome details about SCI's burial practices.
"No room for spouse," "move Mrs. Kolin" and "dig this grave double deep," said one excerpt from the book. A handwritten note obtained along with the book said, "Where are Lippitis and who are Haskells and are they both deceased? Move Haskell marker."
The fact that a subsidiary of SCI is in talks with the federal government, largely due to its close ties to the White House, to remove bodies in New Orleans is ghastly.
The whistleblower suit dates back to 1999 and alleges that while he was governor of Texas, George W. Bush's office interfered with an aggressive state investigation into the embalming practices by Service Corporation International, a Houston-based funeral conglomerate headed by Robert Waltrip --a close friend of the Bush family who also contributed heavily to then Gov. Bush's gubernatorial campaigns, and donated $100,000 to former President George Bush's presidential library.
An attorney for Eliza May, a former whistleblower who served as executive director of the Texas Funeral Services Commission, the state agency that regulates the funeral business, claimed that she was fired from her state job because she raised questions about SCI's embalming practices and sought to expose the company's misdeeds. She filed a whistleblower suit in 1999 alleging "she was the victim of "political" retaliation because she was threatening the interests of a well-connected political patron of the governor," Newsweek reported in an April 21, 2001, story.
May claimed that current White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales was also complicit in the matter and even helped SCI in a cover-up. Gonzales, who was also Bush's gubernatorial counsel, reportedly received a memo on April 22, 1996, suggesting possible improprieties by two funeral commissioners with ties to SCI.
"Bush and his top aides have heatedly denied the charges and suggested the entire matter was drummed up by Democratic lawyers with political motives, Newsweek reported.
The memo, written by Marc Allen Connelly, who was general counsel to the funeral services commission at the time, and sent to Dick McNeil, the Bush-appointed chairman of the funeral commission, stated that Connelly "received information" from Texas state officials that two of the funeral commissioners charged with regulating the state funeral business actually worked for SCI-the largest funeral firm in the state. Although one of the commissioners was openly an SCI officer (the one appointed by Bush), Connelly stated that state banking records he inspected showed that another of the commissioners," Newsweek reported.
The revelation represented a "a possible statutory conflict." Texas law prohibited any two commissioners from having ties "directly or indirectly "to the same funeral company.
In the memo, Connelly told McNeil that he should "immediately inform the Governor of this apparent conflict and also recommend that the Governor take action to remove both (the two SCI-related commissioners) from the commission because both individuals knew or should have known of this conflict yet failed to notify the governor's office."
McNeil stated in a deposition that after he received the Connelly memo, he faxed it to Polly Sowell, who then served as Bush's appointments secretary. "When she was questioned, Sowell was asked what she did with the memo. "I sent it to the General Counsel's Office," she said. But Sowell said she did not remember what happened after that and, in his interview with NEWSWEEK, Gonzales said such a memo was merely one of many that might have crossed his desk and was otherwise not memorable. In any case, Bush never acted on the memo's recommendations that the SCI affiliated commissioners be removed."
* 2005 Jason Leopold
Jason Leopold is the author of the explosive memoir, News Junkie, to be released in the spring of 2006 by Process/Feral House Books. Visit Leopold's website at www.jasonleopold.com for updates.
Oh. Cronyism because Blanco hired them?
Sorry, Dan. You can't hang this around Bush's neck.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/about/
First things first.
Who brought Kenyon in, Blanco or FEMA?
Find any other company that does what Kenyon does. It was the first company called in to do corpse retrieval after the Indian Ocean tsunami.
You guys are so funny. I suspect if you researched Clinton's FEMA, you would find that Kenyon might have been involved at Oklahoma City, just as Clinton used Halliburton for reconstruction.
You need to face facts. There are companies that excel at what they do. Accusing the government of "cronyism" because they are used is ignorant.
Who brought Kenyon in, Blanco or FEMA?
Let's look instead at Bush's FEMA.
Who was Bush's first FEMA director?
See ya.
"You need to face facts. There are companies that excel at what they do. Accusing the government of "cronyism" because they are used is ignorant."
That's not important to the libs. All they care about is that the contract was openly bid, regardless of whatever emergency is occurring.
In your first reply to me on this thread, you said that Blanco contracted for Kenyon to perform the recovery. While Louisiana was the one who ulimately signed the contract, it was only because FEMA was refusing to sign a contract with Kenyon. But it was FEMA who called in Kenyon. As you know, Kenyon is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SCI.
And who runs SCI? Robert Waltrip, long-time Bush family friend, whose PAC donated $45,000 to GW Bush's 1994 gubernatorial campaign and $100,000 to GHW Bush's presidential library.
This in spite of the fact that the feds have used Kenyon for every major recovery effort dating back to the Oklahoma City bombing. And yet, FEMA was dragging it's feet signing a contract with Kenyon.
Some on this thread have speculated that it's because the feds were checking Kenyon out. This could not have been the reason as the feds were intimately familiar with Kenyon. As you wrote, the feds have been working with Kenyon for many years, yet no contract. Strange, no?
Bush's first FEMA director was Joe Allbaugh. Allbaugh had previously worked for Bush as his his chief of staff while he was governor. Allbaugh left FEMA to become a lobbyist representing, among other clients, Halliburton. (See: Former FEMA head and Halliburton lobbyist visits Louisiana for deals)
But Allbaugh contends he wasn't down in Louisiana seeking contracts. He was in Louisiana to 'coordinate private sector support'. 'But that's not the same thing as asking for government contracts for clients', he says.
Ri-ight... And the meaning of the word, 'is', is?
OK. If that's what you want.
On the other hand, the NFDA would've done for free what Bush-cronies are doing for the money. (See: FEMA mortuary move irritates volunteer)
Honest and not run by cronies of policitians or bureaucrats.
What is your criteria for companies contracting with the federal government?
Are you kidding? I'm rolling on the floor, laughing out loud!
I worked in the funeral industry. You actually think your local overweight undertaker, who is accustomed to dealing with intact bodies, with an occasional gunshot wound, or drowning, thrown in, is capable of rolling into New Orleans and dealing with that dangerous environment?
Kenyon International exists for a reason. They know what they're doing since they've handled mass casualties many, many times. LeRoy from Heavenly Angels Funeral Chapel wouldn't have the first clue about dealing with unrecognizable cadavers, unbelieveable stench, and maggots crawling out of every orifice, day in and day out.
Your hometown mortician is good at what he does, and Kenyon is good at what it does. And they're worth every penny of what each makes.
If Kenyon is so good, why was FEMA dragging it's feet to sign a contract?
But, that's now moot, as Louisiana has signed the contract (for which they will be reimbursed by FEMA anyway).
Maybe, maybe not. From the article I linked:
"Kenyon asked us to share the names and phone numbers of NFDA members and funeral directors who are interested in a paid three-week employment situation," the NFDA told its members. "If you have already volunteered with NFDA, we'd like to let you know about this paid option to help."
So, even though LeRoy hasn't a clue, Kenyon still wanted to pay them to do exactly what you said they were incapable of doing. Strange, no?
You don't know why they were brought in without a contract, but you know it's not cronyism.
Depends on what the local guys would be doing.
In any case, Kenyon's strength is logistics: organizing the effort and coordinating identification. IOW, overall management of the recovery.
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