State seeks to bar 3 funeral-home directors

THE STATE has filed injunctions against three city funeral directors linked to high-profile scandals last month, seeking to permanently strip them of their ability to operate.

Janet Powell Dailey, John Price and Blair Hawkins all were sued by the state Board of Funeral Directors on Friday, accused of mishandling bodies entrusted to them and operating funeral homes on lapsed licenses, according to court documents.

All three face a hearing in the city's Commonwealth Court on Tuesday.

In the suits, the state alleges that the trio violated multiple sections of the Funeral Directors Law by "engaging in gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct" and "engaging in gross immorality."

"The only way to protect the public from immediate harm . . . is to enjoin [the three accused] from funeral directing," prosecutor Timothy Fritsch writes in all three suits.

Dailey declined to comment for this article. Price did not respond to a message left for him Wednesday night. Hawkins, who also has been criminally charged by the District Attorney's Office with abuse of a corpse, could not be reached for comment.

Dailey came to the state's attention Aug. 25, when police found the bodies of Albert Andrews, Leon Nelson and Sally Czarnecki "in an advanced state of decomposition" inside a garage on Hagert Street near 27th in North Philly, around the corner from her funeral home, Powell Mortuary Services.

The suit against Price says that the bodies initially were delivered to Price's business, Price Funeral Home, on 43rd Street near Wallace in West Philly, because Dailey's funeral home was under renovation.

According to state records, both funeral homes had expired licenses at the time.

At some point before the discovery, Dailey allegedly moved the bodies to the garage, which she also owns, the suit against Dailey says. When a neighbor on that block noticed a foul odor early Aug. 25, he investigated.

That man, Corey Cureton, told the Daily News that he walked into the garage, which had been left open, and saw the bodies inside. He called police immediately.

Responding officers told state officials that the garage was allegedly in "unsanitary and hazardous condition," according to the suit against Dailey.

The three bodies had been dead for some time before their discovery - Andrews died July 26, Nelson died Aug. 11, and Czarnecki died Aug. 13.

None of them had been embalmed or refrigerated. Two of them, Andrews and Czarnecki, had been stored in unsealed cremation boxes, and the other was inside an unsealed coffin, according to the suit.

State law mandates that all corpses must be embalmed, refrigerated or placed in a sealed container within 24 hours of death.

Dailey's son Chris defended his mother and her business to the People Paper on the day of the discovery. He said the bodies had only recently been transferred to the garage from Price in order to make room for newer bodies.

John Price himself later confirmed that story to a reporter. However, because both Powell Mortuary Services and Price Funeral Home had expired facility licenses, the arrangement was illegal, according to the injunctions filed last week.

Additionally, a subsequent inspection of Price's funeral home Sept. 2 found that it allegedly "was not in sanitary conditions," the suit against Price says.

A state inspector found three bodies inside the funeral home, which had no operational eyewash station (as required by state law). Fresh and dried blood, as well as embalming fluid, also allegedly was found on an embalming table, the suit says.

Hawkins' funeral home, Hawkins Funeral Services, was said to have been in a similar state when an inspector visited it Aug. 31.

In that case, an inspector found three bodies inside the funeral home on Vine Street near 53rd in West Philly, which has never been licensed with the state, according to the suit against Hawkins.

Two of the bodies were covered in maggots and flies and had trash bags "filled with medical waste" on top of them, the suit says. One of the deceased individuals, who was not identified in the suit, may have had AIDS, the suit says.

Additionally, the suit says, the prep room where the corpses were being stored was not ventilated or air conditioned, and blood was splattered on its walls and floors. In a corner, the inspector found two bags filled with human organs soaking in formaldehyde, the suit says.

Hawkins, who allegedly had the funeral home since May 2014, was charged with three counts of abuse of corpse, according to police, who said Hawkins tried to bar the state inspector from entering.

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