STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

More All

• Halloween contest — send your photo!
• Bookworm: Life’s random acts
• Facts and life realities of a mysterious disease

Share and Enjoy [?]

A Lee County woman says she was fired from her Naples funeral home job after speaking out against staff moving remains without families’ permission, damaging gravesites and sexually harassing and discriminating against women.

Vanessa Hersh filed a whistleblower lawsuit in Collier County Circuit Court this spring against Alderwoods Group Inc. and Naples Memorial Gardens Inc. In the 17-page suit, Hersh says she was fired Feb. 1, 2005, after objecting to the disinterment of remains without permission, damage to the cremation garden, desecration of gravesites, the misplacing of cremated remains and discrimination.

Renovation started in October 2004 on the funeral home’s cremation garden — where cremated remains are kept — after a new funeral home was built on Naples Memorial Funeral Home and Cemetery grounds, according to the suit. Hersh, 49, was asked to contact family members for permission to move remains during the redesign and renovation of the garden.

However, out of about 40 families, Hersh couldn’t reach several to obtain permission, and two refused to authorize the disinterment and relocation, the suit said.

They “expressly demanded that the remains and the memorials not be disturbed in any way,” according to the lawsuit.

Naples Memorial Gardens is operated by the Alderwoods Group.

But on Nov. 1, 2004, Hersh saw the cremation garden in disarray, “with site markers torn up from the ground and strewn about,” the suit said. “Ms. Hersh was also concerned that several of the containers holding cremated remains had been breached, possibly resulting in the permanent loss of at least some portion of the cremated remains from the containers.”

Her attorney, Darrin Phillips of Naples, said he could not comment on whether any cremated remains were spilled during renovations.

Hersh, who was hired as a sales manager for Naples Memorial Funeral Home and Cemetery in January 2003, also said in the suit that the then-general manager, Michael Gendron, told a family a casket they selected would rot from the inside out so they would buy a more expensive casket.

The Federal Trade Commission prohibits funeral providers from making “unsupportable claims regarding a product’s ability to resist water, dirt, or other gravesite substances,” according to the Florida Attorney General’s Office.

Hersh contends in her suit that Gendron “regularly told customers that he was required to have a funeral director present for all cemetery or cremation services so that he could charge them $495, when no such requirement existed.”

Gendron is not named as a defendant in this lawsuit, but many of Hersh’s allegations of inappropriate conduct center on Gendron.

“I’ve already responded through the attorneys,” Gendron said of the allegations against him in the lawsuit. “That’ll all go through the company.”

He referred further questions to Rick Swanson, regional general manager for the Alderwoods Group, which operates Naples Memorial Gardens. Swanson also is not named as a defendant in the suit.

“This is something that I think is in the process of being settled, so I can’t comment on it,” Swanson said.

Hersh could not be reached for comment. Phillips said Hersh spent “the better part of 20 years” in the funeral industry and still lives in Florida but declined to disclose where in Florida she lives.

“We think the allegations in the complaint speak for themselves,” Phillips said. “My client was very disturbed by what she witnessed.”

The companies deny the charges. Amy Garrard, an attorney representing Alderwoods, said Hersh was fired because she violated company policies and internal procedures.

“I can’t say (which ones),” Garrard said. “There were a number of different policies and procedures.”

Ken Sloan, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Alderwoods Group, said he could not comment on the suit.

On May 31, the Ohio-based Alderwoods Group notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that its stockholders approved a merger with Texas-based Service Corporation International and Coronado Acquisition Corporation, which is a subsidiary of SCI. In the Alderwoods Group’s SEC filings, the company states it is the second-largest operator of funeral homes and cemeteries in North America.

Greg Bolton, a spokesman for Service Corporation International, said that although the company just reported to the SEC it is buying Alderwoods, Alderwoods still is a separate company, at least until the deal is finalized, which should be by the end of the year.

“I can’t comment on anything that’s happening with Alderwoods,” he said.

SCI and SCI Funeral Services of Florida Inc. were charged in 2002 by the Attorney General’s Office with using unfair and deceptive practices. The companies were accused of misplacing remains, selling inadequate burial space and double-selling plots. The Attorney General’s Office accused the companies of burying remains in the incorrect spots without notifying families, destroying vaults, caskets and remains, and twice burying two unrelated infants together in a single plot.

On at least one occasion, remains at Menorah Gardens and Funeral Chapels were scattered in an adjacent field of wild hogs, according to the office’s civil lawsuit. Attorney General’s Office records show this case was settled.

There are no active complaints against, or investigations into, Naples Memorial Gardens, Swanson or Gendron, according to the Florida Attorney General’s Office.

Nina Banister, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Financial Services, said there are no open complaints of misconduct or investigations into Naples Memorial Gardens or Gendron with the department.

According to Department of Financial Services licensing records, Gendron’s funeral director and embalmer license is active through August 2007. This license is registered to the same Cape Coral address as his real estate license. That real estate license expires in March 2007, according to Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation records.

However, Gendron’s Vermont funeral director and embalmer licenses were revoked in December 2000, according to records obtained from the Vermont Board of Funeral Services. Gendron was accused of unprofessional conduct — making or filing false reports and willfully impeding or obstructing the making of proper reports or records — along with his father, Paul. Some of the charges stemmed from Michael Gendron allowing his father to meet with clients to prepare contracts when Paul Gendron funeral licenses were suspended, Vermont professional regulation records show.

“We are confident the allegations will be proved in court,” Phillips said of Hersh’s lawsuit.