Maryland mortician board members resign under pressure

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Three members of the state panel that oversees much of Maryland鈥檚 funeral industry resigned under pressure from the governor鈥檚 office.

The abrupt departures come a week after the Maryland State Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors ordered the closure of a troubled Charles County crematory facility for improper handling of remains.

Michele Kutta, Brandon Wylie and Patrick Thompson were asked by the governor鈥檚 office to resign from the board, according to a source familiar with the matter. All three were part of a four-member subset of the board referred to as the executive committee.

The panel鈥檚 11 volunteer members are appointed by the governor. The board operates as an independent entity that oversees the state鈥檚 funeral industry. As such, it licenses, inspects and disciplines funeral homes, morticians and crematory operators.

Kutta, the president of the board, Wylie, Thompson and Kirk Helfenbein are listed as board officers in minutes from meetings in December. They are also listed on a state directory website for the panel.

But , as of Friday, all four had been scrubbed from a website maintained for the board by the Maryland Department of Health.

A state official Friday confirmed that Helfenbein remains on the panel.

None of the four responded to requests for comment.

The resignations come a week after the panel suspended the license of a Charles County crematory. Gov. Wes Moore (D) Thursday ordered a 鈥渢op to bottom review鈥 of the board in the wake of problems reported at Heaven Bound Cremation Services.

鈥淭here is no higher responsibility for any administration than protecting the health and safety of Marylanders. Today, we further honor our commitment to that pledge,鈥 Moore said in a statement announcing the review.

Moore named Charles Scheeler, senior counsel at DLA Piper and a former federal prosecutor, to lead the review. Scheeler is charged with assessing the board鈥檚 structure and operations. A final review could include recommended changes to state law or regulations.

The panel was first established in 1902 as the State Board of Undertakers of Maryland. It was renamed in 1937, 1981 and again in 2007.

Last week, the board announced the summary suspension of the license issued to Heaven Bound Cremation Services, following inspections of the facility in March and April 2024.

During a visit in March, a聽state inspector found聽鈥渉uman bodies in cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other with no support between the boxes; human bodies in ripped body bags with arms and legs hanging out of the body bags; human remains that were not being stored at temperatures below 40F; and blood on the refrigeration unit and bodily fluids on the floor.鈥

A follow-up visit a month later uncovered 鈥渁 strong odor of decomposing remains鈥 and 鈥渇lies coming out of boxes containing human bodies,鈥 according to board disciplinary findings.

Another visit in January found worse conditions. That report identified nearly a dozen concerns including: bodies not being cremated in a timely manner because of a nonfunctioning cremation chamber; a door to a refrigeration unit blocked by an 鈥渁ccumulation of boxes containing human bodies鈥; bodies stacked on top of each other or in 鈥渞ipped body bags with body parts exposed鈥; at least 18 bodies stored at temperatures not below 40 degrees; and 鈥淭hree visibly decomposing bodies,鈥 including one that had been at the facility since the March inspection.

The panel, in an order signed by Kutta, ordered the facility鈥檚 license suspended. The operators have 30 days to appeal the order.

The issues found since March are not the first for the White Plains facility, that was first licensed in 2016.

A year after being licensed, the state board investigated complaints of聽improperly stored cremains聽鈥 cremated human remains.

Rosa Turner Williams, who operates the facility along with Brandon Williams, admitted in writing to the board that cremains were not properly disposed of. According to board records, Turner Williams admitted under oath at a March 2019 hearing that she had not yet disposed of remains.

The board found that she had violated state laws and regulations by commingling remains, improperly storing and disposing of remains and failing to send remains to families, according to state records. She was reprimanded, placed on probation for a year and ordered to board-approved ethics and courses under the supervision of a board-approved mentor.

In January 2021, the board ruled that she failed to meet the terms of her probation. The panel placed her on a two-year probation sentence with random, unannounced inspections and requirements to complete training.

Two years later, the board concluded she had not met the terms of her probation and opted to continue her probationary term.

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