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Mixed-up remains, rotting bodies, fake ashes: How grieving families uncovered these five funeral home horrors
Funeral home horror stories have cropped up across the country in an industry riddled with mishaps.
For forty years until this May, Colorado’s funeral directors did not need licenses to operate, and they faced minimal oversight. A litany of horror stories that emerged from the state were “bound to happen,” Bill Booker, owner of Roller Funeral Homes and member of the Arkansas State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors told Fox News Digital.
But even in states with tighter regulations, cases of frightful mix-ups and mismanagement crop up, traumatizing already-grieving families and sparking public outrage.
“I would assure the public that plenty of safeguards are in place, and these instances couldn’t go on for very long outside the situation that was in Colorado,” Booker said. I “I think most funeral professionals consider themselves to have a sacred trust between their clients and themselves and really aspire to be in this profession.”
Regardless, when funeral home mismanagement makes the news, those in the profession are shaken.
“A lot of the work in the funeral profession is done when no one else is present — no one but the funeral director and the deceased,” Booker said. “People need to have the proper education but also the proper heart to serve the public at such a tender time.”
1. Hundreds of bodies left to rot by Colorado funeral directors who misused COVID relief funds on vacations, lavish lifestyle
In April, nearly 200 decaying, maggot-infested bodies were found abandoned in a building by Colorado Springs’ Back to Nature Funeral Home owners John and Carie Hallford, Fox News Digital previously reported.
The couple were charged with five counts of abuse of a corpse, five counts of theft, four counts of money laundering and over 50 counts of forgery.
Instead of their deceased relatives’ ashes, the Hallfords allegedly presented families with dry concrete and buried the wrong body on two occasions. In total, they collected $130,000 from bereaved families for cremation and burial services that they never followed through with. In court, an FBI agent testified that the money was enough to cover cremation costs for all the abandoned bodies twice over.
The mugshots of Jon Hallford, left, and Carie Hallford, right, the owners of Return to Nature Funeral Home. (Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)
MOURNING LOVED ONES TARGETED BY ‘DESPICABLE’ FUNERAL HOME SCAM
Based on text messages exchanged by the couple, the accumulation of bodies began four years before the grisly discovery. In their messages, the couple had discussed dumping the bodies into a hole, then treating them with lye or setting them on fire.
A later indictment claimed that the Hallfords also used $882,300 in COVID pandemic relief funds to buy cars, dinners, cryptocurrency, their child’s tuition and a slew of vacations.
“In Colorado, it was just a matter of time that someone who was not regulated, not licensed, with no governmental oversight, they eventually lose their sense of right and wrong, and the results are just horrifying,” Booker told Fox News Digital.
The Hallfords were ordered to pay out more than $1 million to the families of the deceased in August, CNN reported.
2. Former Colorado funeral director arrested for hoarding cremated remains, woman’s body in hearse for two years
Two years after his mortuary business closed, a funeral director was found with the cremated remains of up to 30 people in his rented home this February.
Police made the sickening discovery during a court-ordered eviction of 33-year-old Miles Harford from his Denver home on February 6, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Harford also kept the remains of a deceased woman inside a hearse for two years. He acknowledged to police that he owed money to several crematories in the area and that none would cremate the woman’s body, so he decided to store it in the hearse, the Colorado Sun reported.
Seen here is the Return to Nature Funeral Home, in Penrose, Colorado, where stacks of human remains were discovered, and bodily fluid several inches deep covered the floor, an FBI agent testified. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
INVESTIGATION OF COLORADO ‘GREEN’ FUNERAL HOME UNCOVERS MORE DECAYING BODIES: OFFICIALS
His business, Apollo Funeral and Cremation Services, had been closed since September 2022.
Booker said that “greed” or “the lack of a moral compass” could have motivated Harford.
“Maybe [he didn’t] intend to make a pattern of this. But when you go down that road once, and no one detects it, you can do it again and again,” Booker said.
A warrant issued for Harford’s arrest at the time listed potential charges of abuse of a corpse, forgery of the death certificate, and theft of the money paid for cremation.
3. Long Island sisters sue funeral home for $60 million after wrong man buried in their father’s plot, wearing his favorite t-shirt
Stacy Holzman and Megan Zaner claim that a South Carolina funeral home mistakenly sent the wrong person’s remains to New York for burial when their father died out of state, and that New York funeral directors insisted it was the correct body even though the women didn’t recognize the man in the casket.
The Long Island sisters sued Fletcher Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Fountain Inn, S.C., and Star of David Memorial Chapels in West Babylon, New York, for $60 million in damages after the interment imbroglio last February.
The women suspected that something was awry when they asked for a final look at their dad. Although the man was wearing his favorite Led Zepplin shirt, his face didn’t look quite right.
A photo of an empty morgue at a crematorium. (Fox News )
STACKS OF BODIES, FLUIDS AND FLIES FOUND AT COLORADO FUNERAL HOME, FBI AGENT SAYS
“Where is his facial hair?” Stacy Holzman asked the funeral home, according to CBS News. “The funeral director said it’s standard practice that we shave everybody.”
The man also had an autopsy scar on his forehead, but the women had asked that their father be buried according to Jewish tradition, which does not allow for autopsies.
“Again, the funeral director is dismissing it, saying, ‘Oh, it’s standard for if somebody passes in a hospital,’ and I’m like, ‘No, this isn’t right, I don’t recognize him,’” Holzman told the outlet.
Weeks later, the South Carolina funeral home confirmed the women’s suspicions. In the lawsuit, they claim that his body had been left “abandoned” inside the morgue “without dignity or respect.” The bereaved daughters buried their father later without his favorite clothing.
The Star of David said in a statement that the family “confirmed the identification of the deceased at the cemetery” before the burial, Fox News Digital previously reported. Star of David said it “took swift and decisive action to contact the family and offer whatever services needed to lessen their grief” after Fletcher notified them of the mistake.
“We deeply regret any sorrow experienced by the family for the mistake made by the funeral home in South Carolina,” the Star of David said, adding that “families are under a great deal of stress when they identify their deceased.”
Booker said that he had “never seen” a body mix-up during his 44 years in the funeral profession.
“I don’t know what all the background information is, but I would like to hope that the people who pass away went through an extended illness and maybe don’t look like themselves as often,” he said. “A mistake could happen in the healthcare setting where the wrong identification is put on the deceased person . . . two people passed away at approximately the same time, there’s a missed identification between the deceased, and you have two funeral homes that are impacted by that.”
4. New Jersey funeral home nearly buries woman 20 years younger in place of 93-year-old woman
The family of Kyung Ja Kim, who died on November 10, 2021, sought a $50 million settlement from two funeral homes, a funeral director and a mortician after the wrong woman was almost buried in their mother’s stead.
Kummi Kim, the woman’s daughter, told NorthJersey.com that their family thought that embalming technology had gotten so good that it made their deceased mother look much younger.
Kyung Ja Kim wore dentures, and the other woman’s body had a full set of teeth, the family’s attorney told the outlet. The dentures were later found under the casket pillow.
A person lays a rose on the grave of a soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, United States military cemetery, on Memorial Day, which is held annually to honor those who died while serving in the armed forces in Virginia, United States on May 29, 2023. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Mourning family members, many who had traveled from Korea, began to throw shovelfuls of dirt onto the woman’s casket during burial. The family realized that something was amiss when funeral director Haemin Gina Chong tried to hurry mourners away.
Chong allegedly showed Kummi Kim a photo of the 93-year-old, asking whether it was her mother. When Kummi Kim replied in the affirmative, Chong allegedly directed the cemetery to lift the casket out of the grave and bring it back to the funeral home, leaving friends and family flabbergasted.
5. Texas funeral home sued for allegedly letting body “literally rot” during Winter Storm Uri in 2021
Julietta Guerra sued Integrity Funeral Home in south Houston last February, claiming that her son, Edward Silva, had not been embalmed for four days.
Fox News Digital previously reported that Silva had died unexpectedly on February 9, 2021. According to Guerra’s lawsuit, funeral home director Hilda Rojas assured the woman that her son would be embalmed by Feb. 12 and that “they would make him look like he was real.”
Guerra was allegedly told that her son’s body wasn’t ready yet on February 12, then again when she called the next day.
On February 14, Winter Storm Uri hit Houston. Guerra and her husband drove to the funeral home when they were unable to reach them by phone. The door was locked, and the mourning parents noticed that there weren’t any generators as they drove around they building.
Guerra arrived at the funeral home on Feb. 22 with a beautician to do Silva’s hair and makeup. The lawsuit said he was “severely decomposed” and smelled so strongly that the beautician told Guerra’s sister to not let her see her son. The funeral home director allegedly did not say anything to any family member beforehand about the state of the body.
The funeral suit that the family had brought for Silva also would not fit because of “extreme post-mortem swelling,” according to the lawsuit. The clothing ultimately had to be cut open and draped over his body for him to be able to wear it.
The family was forced to hold a closed-casket funeral, with many of more than 100 mourners “retching” at the smell.
“No family should have to endure the desecration of their loved one’s body like the Guerra family did,” family attorney Omar Khawaja said. “We intend to hold Integrity Funeral Home at Forest Lawn Cemetery accountable for their egregious conduct.”
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The Oregon attorney general will ask a court to pause Paramount’s PSKY.O $110 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros. WBD.O for 60 days, saying on Tuesday that the company withheld records of its lobbying efforts.
While Paramount has told the state it will not close the deal before July 16, Attorney General Dan Rayfield said he will ask a Multnomah County court to order the company to hand over records and to delay the deal so the state can review them.
“We’re not going to let Paramount Skydance play hide the ball so they can rush through their massive merger,” Rayfield said in a statement. “Oregonians have a real stake in this deal – in our film industry, in our economy, in the choices they’ll have as consumers.”
A Paramount spokesperson said the information Oregon seeks “has nothing to do with whether this transaction complies with Oregon’s antitrust laws and is not a legitimate basis to delay a plainly lawful, pro-competitive transaction.”
The company has provided the state with documents relevant to the merger, the spokesperson added.
Oregon is seeking documents regarding “Project Warrior,” which was Paramount’s internal code name for efforts to obtain regulatory clearance. The state is also asking for records related to the company’s efforts to lobby the Trump administration for support of the merger.
Paramount CEO David Ellison’s father, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, has cultivated ties with President Donald Trump, and the company has hired former Trump officials.
Oregon is also seeking information on whether Paramount had any role in the U.S. Department of Justice’s statement announcing it had cleared the deal.
While Oregon ordinarily “would afford significant weight” to the DOJ’s determination, the state plans to cite a Wall Street Journal report that officials overrode career staff attorneys at the DOJ who were leaning toward a recommendation to challenge the deal, according to documents to be filed in court that Reuters reviewed.
The DOJ issued a lengthy statement last month saying it believed the deal would “increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem, with benefits for American consumers and workers.”
The company has said the deal would create a stronger streaming competitor to Netflix NFLX.O and Disney DIS.N, and benefit creatives and consumers.
California, New York and other U.S. states are preparing to sue to block the deal, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last month. The states have authority to enforce laws against mergers that they believe would unlawfully decrease competition.
Opponents of the deal, including some actors, writers and media workers, have worried that it would hurt jobs.
SALT LAKE CITY — Rep. Mike Kennedy, R-Utah, views liberty as a driving force in American history, which is why he’s thrilled about a 60-foot-long and 36-foot-tall arch planned for a space near the Utah Capitol.
The Grand Liberty Arch, designed by renowned artist Sabin Howard, is expected to become one of the largest bronze sculptures in the West by the time it’s completed over the next seven years. Kennedy believes it will highlight the effort to gain liberty over the past 250 years.
“For two and a half centuries, liberty has been an active ingredient in the background of American history, and the driving engine of our national progress,” he said on Monday, as a 6-foot model of Howard’s piece rotated within the Utah Capitol rotunda next to him. “It is the vital spark that transformed a collection of colonies into a beacon of global innovation and human potential.”
However, those who live near its planned location are less excited by the state’s plan, not by the sculpture as much as the spot the state has in mind and the process by which it was selected. They believe it will drastically alter a longstanding open space, and question why the project was voted on quickly without much public feedback.
The Grand Liberty Arch
The Capitol Preservation Board signed off on the project in May, with the expectation that the estimated $55 million cost will be raised privately. Former Zions Bank CEO Scott Anderson was working with JLL Salt Lake City Real Estate to raise the funds, meeting with family foundations and large corporations, officials said during the meeting.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox penned a letter in support of the project in February, saying that he believes in the “significance of this legacy piece.” Howard, who recently completed a World War I memorial in Washington, D.C., had his latest vision on display at the Utah Capitol over Fourth of July weekend, so people could better view his vision.
The sculpture depicts many elements of the past 250 years in the U.S., from the Revolutionary War and the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the building of the country and its westward expansion. An unveiling ceremony was held Monday, where Howard and others were able to describe it and its importance for now and the next 250 years.
“America is dynamic. … Americans do not stand still,” he said. “The Grand Liberty Arch is a celebration of liberty that has transformed our nation.”
It’s expected to be built in phases over the next seven years, completed in time for the 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Over 100 people showed up for the ceremony, making sure to snag a photo of the model by the end of it.
A neighborhood’s concern
The sculpture is to be located at 17 W. 500 North, on a parcel across the street from the Utah Capitol, informally known by some as the Capitol triangle. Utah owns the land, but it’s also not considered part of the primary Capitol Complex, meaning it’s not subject to some of the same Capitol grounds rules, Cox said.
Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, called it the “perfect location” during the board’s May meeting. Renderings show a plan to remove some of the park’s longstanding trees, replacing them with cherry trees around the arch that essentially adds to the Capitol’s walkway.
The location has also created a stir within its neighborhood. The Capitol Hill Neighborhood Council ended a June 17 meeting by debating several options to respond to the state’s decision.
There were some concerns raised about some of the depictions, but most are concerned about potential impacts to the current open space, which is used for an annual gathering, but also smaller park space since it’s located right next to homes, said Jonathan Bruns, chairman of the Capitol Hill Neighborhood Council.
“It’s off the main (path), so it’s a little … removed from the main grounds. It’s usually a quieter spot,” he explained.
With thousands of people projected to cross the street to view the piece, they said it could snarl traffic along Capitol and Columbus streets. Others were concerned by the size and scale of the project and the quick process to select a design, which appeared to include little to no public feedback.
Salt Lake City Councilman Chris Wharton, whose district includes the area, pointed out that the state is exempt from local processes, meaning there’s nothing the city or county could do to intervene. As a resident and lawyer, he suggested a formal complaint to the Capitol Preservation Board over the monument process around the Capitol complex, which the neighborhood council plans to do.
The council agreed to submit a formal complaint to the board and Utah Attorney General’s Office to make sure that the board followed Utah’s Open and Public Meetings Act and normal processes for a monument. It also agreed to submit a public records request on the project for a “comprehensive report of community feedback.”
Part of the complaint centers around a discussion of a 100-year monument project for which there were two options discussed in May, separate from the arch. One celebrated the golden spike, while the other highlighted women’s suffrage in Utah, but the project was placed on hold over logistics.
Board members didn’t abandon the project, but said the arch could ultimately serve as the selection. That made the neighborhood question if it followed the correct process for monuments, Bruns explained.
“It kind of seems like this went around the rules in an odd way. … We are obviously doing work to make sure it was done by the right processes,” he said.
The attorney general’s complaint has since been filed, while the rest are in the works, he told KSL. He’s unsure if the council would file a lawsuit over the time and money that would strain a volunteer group of residents.
Bruns credited Howard for being responsive, adding that he’s hopeful the state can also be understanding of the neighborhood’s concerns, whether that’s project adjustments or a new location.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Washington
Washington law says to alert the public when doctors are accused of misconduct. It can take months
This story describes detailed allegations of sexual violence and other sexual misconduct.
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with KUOW. Sign up for Dispatches to get ProPublica’s stories in your inbox every week.
Experts on laws protecting patient safety give Washington state high marks for the types of information it is willing to disclose about doctors accused of wrongdoing.
Like other states, Washington lets patients look up doctors by name online to read any state allegations against them. But decades ago, Washington lawmakers created a separate pathway that doesn’t leave the homework to patients, mandating that regulators issue a press release whenever an investigation results in formal allegations being filed against a doctor. Washington is alone in legally requiring such proactive outreach to the news media, the Federation of State Medical Boards says.
Yet an examination of Washington discipline records by KUOW and ProPublica found that regardless of what the law calls for, Washington fails to reliably call the public’s attention to serious misconduct allegations against doctors who have been allowed to keep practicing while their cases proceed.
Announcements can take months to go out — and may not go out at all until after the case is resolved.
Take the case of Brooks Watson, a Richland, Washington, doctor who the state medical board accused of making nonconsensual sexual contact, unwanted sexual advances or inappropriate sexual remarks to five of his coworkers over the course of five years.
During one encounter in 2023, Washington Medical Commission records allege, Watson isolated a subordinate in his office and, without her consent, kissed her, touched her breasts, put his hands down her pants, groped her vagina and exposed his penis.
The commission sent Watson a “statement of charges” alleging sexual misconduct and unprofessional conduct on Aug. 19, 2025, and it amended the charges in June to include an allegation that Watson had assaulted someone at his home.
Yet the commission issued no public announcement about Watson’s case for more than nine months after first filing allegations.
Watson remains licensed to practice, and an online provider database run by the state shows no final decision on his case has been made as of July 6.
The attorney defending him in the criminal case stemming from the incident at his home said that Watson disputes the allegations and that he pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor assault charge against him. The attorney referred further questions to another lawyer who he said represented Watson in workplace matters; that person acknowledged a request for comment sent by email but did not answer emailed questions or respond to voicemails.
Watson did not answer emails or phone messages seeking his response to the medical commission’s claims. Meeting materials on the commission’s website say Watson had a hearing scheduled in April.
KUOW and ProPublica began examining how and when Washington tells the public about doctors facing discipline following the case of Mark Mulholland, an eastern Washington OB-GYN accused last year of conducting irregular pelvic exams and making inappropriate remarks.
A Washington OB-GYN was repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct. The state medical board let him keep practicing
He initially kept seeing patients, and at least one has accused Mulholland in court of abuse and negligence that she says occurred during the time between when the commission filed formal charges and when it announced them. The woman alleges Mulholland “shoved his fingers into her rectum” and “said to her with confidence that she had a nice-looking and tight vagina.”
More than 80 lawsuits related to Mulholland’s alleged misconduct have been filed against the doctor himself, his former employer Kadlec or its affiliate, the Providence hospital chain.
(Mulholland has not responded to requests for comment, but the doctor or his attorney told the commission previously that he strives to be gentle and respectful with cervical exams and denied conducting them in ways that patients described. In the civil litigation, which remains ongoing, the doctor, Providence and Kadlec all deny wrongdoing. In the state disciplinary case, which remains open, Mulholland signed an interim order agreeing to restrictions on his license.)
As with many announcements of charges against doctors whose licenses remained unrestricted, the commission did not first publish a notice about Mulholland on the press release section of its website, but rather in a subscribers-only email that said nothing about what he was accused of. It came six weeks after charges were filed.
The list is supposed to go out quarterly, a schedule that guarantees many charges stay off the radar for months — or even longer when the board fails to keep to its publication schedule. At least 269 days passed recently without subscribers receiving an email announcing charges being filed against a doctor and without the commission announcing charges in an online press release.
Some cases still have not been publicized.
Presented by KUOW and ProPublica with questions about how it notifies the public, the commission issued a written statement saying it plans to alter its practices to make allegations against doctors more visible.
Although the commission believes its current practices meet the law’s notification requirement, the statement said, the agency “is always looking for ways to grow.”
“Technology and public accessibility standards continue to evolve since the statute was written,” the statement said. The medical commission “recognizes the value in refining our processes and establishing new best practices to enhance transparency.”
A Seattle doctor was investigated for fertility fraud. The case highlights tension between patient, physician rights
On May 29, the same day the commission sent its statement, it sent four email notices announcing initial or updated allegations against licensees who were not immediately suspended — the first such emails subscribers received since June 2025.
Washington state Rep. Gerry Pollet, a Seattle Democrat and outspoken advocate for disclosure and accountability, said the medical commission was “absolutely not complying with the law.”
“The Legislature clearly said, ‘You have to inform the public quickly, and you should do that through a news release,’” Pollet said. “That’s one of the mechanisms. And the implication of a news release is you have to put it out while it’s still news. And waiting months to put something on a limited listserv doesn’t meet the spirit, much less the letter, of the law.”
Pollet said he plans to ask other legislators to join him in contacting the medical commission and asking for more prompt and public notifications.
And if that doesn’t work, he said, “ What we might need is direction in the budget to demand that they follow the law.”
The letter of the law
The Washington Medical Commission has a well established process for looking into the roughly 2,000 allegations of provider misconduct it receives each year.
If an investigation finds evidence that a doctor violated the law, the medical commission issues a statement of charges. The doctor has a right to contest these before a health law judge or the commission issues a final order spelling out any disciplinary action or dropping the case. Months can go by in the interim.
Washington law directs the medical commission to report both statements of charges and final orders to interested parties: the person whose complaint triggered an investigation, certain professional organizations and the public.
Specifically, the law says public notification “shall include press releases to appropriate local news media and the major news wire services.”
Two legal experts said the availability of the state’s email list notifying subscribers of “legal actions,” which requires journalists and others to opt in, conceivably meets the law’s requirements. But Seth Rosenberg, an administrative and employment law attorney, said by email that the fact that it gives only names, dates and locations — not a description of the charges doctors face — arguably means “it is bereft of meaningful detail.”
Whether or not the emails convey enough information, KUOW and ProPublica’s review found that they often are not issued for a long time.
The review focused on charges against doctors whose licenses remained untouched while they awaited a disciplinary decision. It turned up 13 emails or press releases from May 2024 through July 6 that announced charges while the case was still open, five of which were not sent for more than two months after charges were brought.
In another 12 cases, the commission did not send out public notifications until after it resolved charges against the doctor, often months after the physician was put on notice. Three of these cases were shared by way of the agency’s quarterly newsletter, which doesn’t necessarily go to subscribers on the legal actions list.
Four doctors accused last year or in January still have yet to appear in an email, press release or newsletter noting their charges as of July 6.
All told, the commission has gone 100, 200 or even 300 days — in the case of Watson, the Richland doctor accused of sexual misconduct with coworkers — without either publicizing charges or taking away a doctor’s license.
It’s unclear how many of the physicians identified in KUOW and ProPublica’s review continued practicing while waiting for their cases to be resolved, but they had the legal ability to do so.
The commission did not respond when asked to verify that it had failed to publicize cases against doctors for whom no email bulletins could be found from early in the disciplinary process. Executive Director Kyle Karinen said the commission has consistently attached charges to doctors’ entries in an online database and listed charged doctors in commission meeting materials online.
The Washington Department of Health, a related agency that handles sexual misconduct allegations against doctors when the investigations do not require medical expertise, acknowledged that it failed to publish any bulletins on 30 enforcement actions since 2016 but said it has recently fixed the problem.
The medical commission’s delayed or or nonexistent notifications encompass a range of alleged doctor misconduct.
Kareematulai Arogundade was accused in August of failing to undergo a mental examination that the commission required. The physician, who did not respond when contacted by KUOW and ProPublica by email and phone, first appeared more than 120 days later in the commission’s winter newsletter after his license was indefinitely suspended.
Sophie Gomez was accused in October of failing to respond to a request for information about a complaint filed with the board, and her license was indefinitely suspended in February, after which the commission issued a press release. (Gomez declined to comment when contacted by KUOW and ProPublica.)
The commission did announce charges prior to resolving the case against Jonathan Wynn Hemmert, who oversaw clinical operations at three Washington clinics that used a device called Cryoskin, a temperature-controlled wand that manufacturers say can remove unwanted fat cells when it’s rubbed against a patient’s skin.
The state agency said clinic staffers had clients sign a personal injury waiver, which the commission said was unenforceable, against public policy and deceptive and dishonest. The commission said he also failed to ensure the device was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and failed to supervise staff using the device on patients.
Hemmert signed a settlement agreeing to address the concerns, but the commission in November filed formal allegations that he had breached it. (Hemmert did not respond when asked to comment on the allegations, which have not yet been adjudicated.)
A press release was posted to the commission’s website in March, 112 days after he was charged with breaching the settlement. Two months after that, a listserv notice went out.
‘A right to know’
The 1984 Washington state law that requires public notification was passed as part of the Uniform Disciplinary Act, a set of guidelines for state medical boards and commissions that license providers and investigate complaints.
Among the sponsors was then-state legislator Mike Kreidler, a Democrat and optometrist who served 16 years in the Legislature and 24 as insurance commissioner.
Kreidler said he doesn’t recall the details of how the 1984 law came together. But looking back at it, Kreidler, now 82, said he believes the public notification requirement fulfilled an important function. He said to get to the point where the commission completes an investigation and files charges means a complaint has enough evidence behind it to proceed toward disciplinary action.
“They’re not going to be frivolous in any fashion, and therefore the public certainly does have a right to know,” he said.
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Presented with KUOW and ProPublica’s findings, people who support policies favoring disclosure to patients said the commission’s interpretation of the 1984 notification law falls short.
Patricia Kelmar, senior director of healthcare campaigns at PIRG, a nonprofit advocacy organization for consumers, said the commission should be expansive in discharging its duty to notify the public as the law requires, contacting not only reporters but also a doctor’s current and former patients.
“ We should not be hoping that we stumble across the information that’s going to protect us from a doctor who’s dangerous,” Kelmar said.
Lisa McGiffert, patient safety activist with the Patient Safety Action Network, said the commission’s frequent delay in notifying the public does not fulfill the spirit of Washington’s law, which in her interpretation necessitates a quick release of information.
“ There’s nothing preventing Washington state from saying these have to be sent out to the news media within four or five working days,” McGiffert said.
Local media outlets have paid attention in the occasional cases where the medical commission has announced an action via the press release section of its website. A review of news releases about in-state doctors accused of conduct unrelated to their mental health shows that, more often than not, relevant media outlets have published stories afterward.
A news tip to a local journalist, not the commission’s email list, prompted the first media coverage of the case against Mulholland last June — nearly two months after the commission formally charged the gynecologist with misconduct involving three patients.
The woman who later accused Mulholland of performing an uncomfortable rectal exam and saying her vagina looked nice said the actions occurred at an appointment on May 1, 2025, or just days after the commission filed formal allegations.
The woman told KUOW and ProPublica that she was angry that she heard no news about the commission’s existing allegations before she saw Mulholland.
“I’d never heard anything bad about him,” she said in an interview with KUOW and ProPublica.
Had she known, she wouldn’t have gone, she said.
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