State revokes licenses of now-shuttered Detroit funeral home, manager

DETROIT (FOX 2) – A closed Detroit funeral dwelling and its supervisor had licenses revoked this week due to what the state calls gross misconduct.

The Michigan Board of Examiners in Mortuary Science pulled the licenses of Compassion Funeral Residence and Cremation Service, which operated at 21551 Fenkell, and its supervisor John N. Olszewski Jr. The funeral institution was additionally ordered to pay a $110,000 administrative fantastic, whereas Olszewski should pay $170,000.

The state Division of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs opened an investigation after receiving a grievance from a household who had not obtained the cremated stays of a deceased relative. A grievance was additionally made in opposition to the funeral dwelling by a crematory facility, Tri-County Cremation Providers L.L.C., after it obtained a number of bounced checks.

LARA’s Firms, Securities & Industrial Licensing Bureau inspected the funeral dwelling in September and October 2019.

“Licensed mortuary scientists are required to acquire authorization for closing disposition from the next-of-kin and a burial transit allow earlier than transporting useless human our bodies to cemeteries or crematories and should take care in finishing and electronically signing dying certificates,” stated CSCL Director Linda Clegg. “In any other case, dying certificates are rendered unreliable, and it makes it unimaginable to acquire the approval of a county medical expert to cremate a physique in a well timed method. It’s crucial {that a} absolutely licensed mortuary scientist ensures that this happens and is bodily current on the funeral institution to oversee the person resident trainee she or he is sponsoring always.”

After a June 2022 listening to, a choose made these findings:

• Though Olszewski was the institution’s designated supervisor, he was hardly ever current on the facility and allowed an unsupervised particular person who held an expired mortuary science resident trainee license, Gerald John Ruffin, Jr., to handle the funeral institution’s day-to-day actions.
• Olszewski and the funeral institution aided and abetted one other unlicensed institution and particular person to supervise the funeral companies and closing disposition of a useless human physique.
• Olszewski permitted an agent of the funeral institution to move 5 useless human our bodies to a crematory, Tri-County Cremation Providers, L.L.C., with out burial transit permits and with out first acquiring authorization from the following of kin of the deceased to supervise their closing tendencies, leading to months-long delays in reaching closing disposition.
• Olszewski permitted for cremation companies to be paid with $7,000 in bounced checks, constituting fraud, deceit, or dishonesty within the observe of mortuary science.
• Olszewski unknowingly signed a dying certificates indicating {that a} human physique was buried at a cemetery in Detroit when that physique was awaiting cremation at a crematory facility. The funeral institution transported the physique to Tri-County Cremation Providers, L.L.C. in 2019, and the identical physique remained there till the spring of 2021 when LARA found it throughout an investigation of the crematory facility. The physique was nonetheless awaiting cremation because of a scarcity of authorization for closing disposition.
• Olszewski permitted the institution’s embalming room for use as a storage space and to fall into such a state of disarray, filth, and disrepair that it was not absolutely outfitted to embalm our bodies. The embalming machines weren’t operational in any respect throughout a second inspection of the power and there was a robust, foul odor within the air.
• Olszewski’s and the funeral institution’s conduct demonstrated incompetence and gross negligence within the observe of mortuary science.