Arkansas Funeral Care in Jacksonville
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed a consumer-protection lawsuit Thursday against Arkansas Funeral Care & Crematory of Jacksonville, which lost its license last year after regulators found substandard conditions, including dozens of bodies, some of them “stacked on top of each other outside the cooler.”
In a news release, the attorney general said the business did not provide its services in a “timely, professional and respectful manner,” and in some cases didn’t provide expected service at all.
“Anytime Arkansans enter into a contract with a business, they expect all agreed-upon services to be performed timely and ethically,” Rutledge said. “The loss of a loved one can be one of the most difficult periods in anyone’s life, and a funeral provider has an obligation to make this time easier. Unfortunately, Arkansas Funeral Care violated the trust of Arkansas families and they must be held accountable for their disgusting actions.”
The attorney general’s office said it received formal complaints about the business that detailed failures to provide cremation services, nauseating odor of bodies left unrefrigerated without being embalmed, failures to provide adequate staff to transport bodies and untimely receipt of death certificates.
Rutledge is asking the court to impose civil penalties, restitution for the affected consumers, attorneys’ fees, costs and other relief against the company.
The lawsuit was filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court.
The owners and a manager at the facility have pleaded not guilty to 13 charges of corpse abuse, each related to bodies and remains found at the home. A jury trial is scheduled for late April.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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