Benjamin Rawls, a former employee of Gary’s Smith, Bizzell and Warner and Sons Funeral Home, was granted more time to secure a lawyer Thursday before the State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Service considers suspending his funeral director’s license.
Rawls, of Dolton, Ill., allegedly moved the remains of two infants into the funeral home’s ceiling last fall.
The petition for suspension alleged that Rawls told a fellow employee that he removed the remains of the two infants from a locked container in the funeral home’s morgue and placed them in the ceiling to avoid discovery by a state inspector last September.
Rawls was present at the hearing in Indianapolis and told the board that he had not had enough time to secure legal representation since the petition was filed by the Attorney General’s office on March 27. The board’s next meeting is June 4.
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Rawls, who was employed at the funeral home until Feb. 4, is facing the potential of a 90-day suspension of his license.
The funeral home said had been in possession of the at least one of the infants’ remains since 1996, but it was unable to get in touch with the families to arrange for proper burial.
One of the infants was a boy, who appeared to have been a few months old, and he had a tag from Methodist Hospital suggesting he arrived in March 2012, but a funeral home spokesman insisted he arrived in 1996. The second infant, who appeared to be a mummified stillborn boy, may have been at the funeral home since 1996, investigators said.
The remains were removed from the funeral home on March 4 by Gary Police and the Lake County’s Coroner’s office in order to identify the remains and arrange for burial.
The father of the second infant is suing the funeral home in Lake Superior Court, claiming that he met with representatives in 1996 to arrange the burial.
Smith, Bizzell, Warner and Sons funeral home apologized for the “isolated incident” in an ad in Thursday’s Post-Tribune.
“We sincerely regret and apologize for whatever uneasiness this has caused,” the ad read. “We are fully cooperating with the proper authorities and we are committed to resolving all issues related to the incident.”