Lawsuit Alleges Harold Warren Still Prepping Bodies

By Janese Silvey
Columbia Tribune
February 14, 2015

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/local/lawsuit-alleges-harold-warren-still-prepping-bodies/article_19e8147a-b4f3-5446-bedf-2ab80083c3b9.html

Harold Warren continues to prepare bodies for visitations and funerals even though he's no longer licensed to do so, according to a lawsuit filed against his employer, Millard Family Chapels, late last week.

Rosetta "Darla" Fisher and Heidi Wick-Houser are suing the funeral home company for wrongful termination after both were fired Aug. 31.

Harold Warren

Owner Reid Millard told them it was a business decision to eliminate the positions, although the lawsuit says the same jobs later were advertised as being open. Their attorney believes they were fired for complaining about Warren.

"There were two things they complained about — Harold Warren working there and operating without a license, and they were asked to do things that put their own license in jeopardy," Columbia attorney George Smith said.

The lawsuit also accuses Kevin Clohessy — a former priest accused of clergy sexual abuse in 2003 — of not holding a license while performing duties. Instances recorded in the lawsuit span from April 2011 to August, but the petition says Clohessy managed the Columbia funeral home for more than a year before that. The Missouri Division of Professional Registration shows Clohessy was issued a funeral director license on June 15.

Warren is a former funeral director whose Columbia funeral home was purchased by Millard in 2009. That year, Warren pleaded guilty to three felonies and admitted in court that he gave the wrong ashes to three grieving families when cremation had not taken place and that the bodies were allowed to rot for extended periods of time.

He and his son, Harold Warren Jr., had their licenses to practice as funeral directors revoked. Warren's wife, Helen, gave up hers voluntarily, according to Tribune archives.

Millard hired Warren a few months after purchasing his funeral home. At the time, Warren's attorney, Dan Viets, said Warren would not do any funeral-related work but rather would do janitorial tasks such as mowing and cleaning. Viets yesterday said he was not aware of the current lawsuit.

The petition alleges that Warren has performed funeral-related tasks such as preparing a deceased's hair and makeup, arranging decorations and greeting visitors. In one instance, the lawsuit says, Warren prepared a woman's body for viewing by dressing and arranging her and gluing her hands together.

In another instance, a man who had built a deck on Warren's home in exchange for funeral services came in to collect on the trade, the petition says. The lawsuit accuses Millard of agreeing to perform that funeral by taking the costs out of what he still owes Warren for the funeral home building. The plaintiffs say they were told "that he was paying for the building under the table so that the people Warren owed money to could not claim it."

According to the lawsuit, Millard told the plaintiffs that Warren "was a good man who had been unfairly blamed for the funeral home scandal. Millard told the plaintiffs that even bad publicity surrounding Harold Warren's work at the funeral home was a good thing because it was free advertising when people talked about Millard Funeral Home."

Millard and Warren did not return calls seeking comment, and Clohessy did not respond to an email.