Funeral directors’ licenses revoked after appeals process
Two funeral directors’ licenses were revoked and the Mesa crematory where they worked had its license suspended for 30 days following allegations that cardboard containers holding bodies were stacked on top of each other.
The penalties took effect last month after a years-long appeals process stemming from allegations first made in 2015—when the state agency that regulates funeral homes received complaints that Saguaro Valley Cremation Services was stacking containers of bodies and failing to refrigerate some bodies as they awaited cremation.
At the time, an attorney representing the Arizona Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers accused the crematory of repeatedly cutting corners and putting profit over principle.
Speaking during a disciplinary hearing in 2016, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Raine accused the crematory of treating the deceased “almost like dogs and cats at the pound.”
“It is an industry standard that one never stacks a body,” Raine said.
After the hearing, the board voted to revoke the funeral-directing licenses of two employees at Saguaro Valley: Franklin Lambert, the business manager, and Jessie Welsh-Alexis, a cremationist. The board also voted to revoke the cremationist license of a third employee, Phillip Scott Warner, whose license subsequently expired.
The employees appealed to Maricopa County Superior Court and then to the Arizona Court of Appeals, saying the discipline was “unreasonably disproportionate to the offense.” Both courts upheld the disciplinary sanctions.
The Arizona Supreme Court recently declined to review the case, clearing the way for the licenses to be revoked on May 20 and for the 30-day suspension of the crematory to begin on May 25, according to the funeral board. The crematory also will be on probation for a year with the board monitoring operations.
Welsh-Alexis also lost her cremationist license while Lambert has been without his cremationist license since 2011 when the board revoked it after he faced similar allegations that he failed to refrigerate bodies because the coolers were full.
Welsh-Alexis still has an embalming license.
Charles Buri, an attorney representing the employees, did not return calls seeking comment to
and azcentral.com. Lambert and Welsh-Alexis did not return calls seeking comment; Phillip Scott Warner and Saguaro Valley Crematory could not be reached for comment.
The state funeral board can take disciplinary action against the licenses of individuals— as well as crematories and funeral homes — for unprofessional conduct or violations of law or funeral board rules.
Saguaro Valley, located at Southern Avenue and Horne Street in Mesa, receives human remains in boxed and sealed cardboard containers from funeral homes. The remains are cremated and then returned to the funeral homes.
The state funeral board received complaints in 2015 from two owners of a Valley funeral home who alleged containers inside Saguaro Valley were double stacked outside the refrigeration unit.
One of the complaints also alleged that Lambert was observed double stacking containers in the back of a van with no rack, divider or support between the containers.