Funeral director suspended for 5 years
Unprofessional, deceptive practices cited by regulators
A state regulatory board yesterday handed a five-year suspension to a Lawrence funeral director accused of unprofessional conduct and deceptive practices, including one case where he refused to complete funeral arrangements for a client because she had purchased a lower-priced casket elsewhere.
Derek A. Wallace, owner of the Hart-Wallace Funeral Home in Lawrence and part-owner of the Oceanside Funeral Home in Salisbury, lost his licenses as an embalmer and funeral director for violating a number of rules regulating the way funeral directors interact with customers. He also owned and operated a crematory in Seabrook, N.H., in violation of rules prohibiting Massachusetts funeral directors from expanding into related businesses dealing with the disposal of human remains.
In its 53-page decision, the Board of Regulation of Funeral Directors and Embalmers seemed to be particularly offended by Wallace's efforts to cover up his transgressions and his unwillingness to take the charges against him seriously. The decision said Wallace had to be reprimanded and asked not to laugh during witness testimony.
''Respondent claims that he made many 'mistakes' which do not rise to the level of gross misconduct," the decision said. ''If there were only one mistake, that argument might hold water. However, what he terms mistakes were a litany of violations of the board's rules and regulations."
Wallace, in a telephone interview yesterday prior to receiving the board decision, said a five-year suspension was totally unwarranted.
''I would be absolutely dumbfounded if they suspended my licenses for five years for these complaints," he said. ''That would be like having your house taken away because you're late on a water bill."
Efforts to reach Wallace later yesterday after the board's decision was formally released were unsuccessful.
Although the board found Wallace violated a large number of board regulations and rules, the charges against him arose primarily from three complaints.
The first complaint was filed by Mildred Ruiz of Lawrence, who claimed Wallace had embalmed her mother in October 2001 but refused to handle the rest of the funeral arrangements after learning she had purchased a lower-priced casket from another company.
Federal Trade Commission rules state that funeral homes cannot decline to do business with a customer who purchased a casket from another vendor.
Wallace insisted he halted work on the funeral arrangements only because he was too busy with other funerals, but the board reviewed his work schedule and concluded that was not the case.
Ruiz also charged that Wallace wouldn't release her mother's body to another funeral home until he received a certified check for $1,710, but the board said it did not find that charge credible.
Wallace was also accused by Cynthia Goumas of Lawrence of reneging on a prepaid funeral contract. Goumas's mother had paid $4,375 in 1990 for a contract that she assumed would cover the cost of her funeral whenever she died.
But when Goumas went to Wallace after her mother died in December 2002, Goumas said Wallace told her she owed an additional $1,200 to $1,400 and also tried to substitute a casket of lesser quality than the one her mother had originally selected.
The final complaint against Wallace centered on his ownership of the Bayview Crematory in Seabrook. The board concluded Wallace violated Massachusetts regulations barring funeral directors from owning cemeteries or crematories. The board also said Wallace tried to cover up his violation of the regulations in September 2002 by selling his interest in the crematory to his mother for $1 while continuing to run the facility.
''The number of misrepresentations by Derek Wallace in connection with this dual ownership is staggering," the board said in its ruling.
Wallace can appeal the board's decision to the courts, but unless the decision is overturned Wallace won't be able to operate as a funeral director or embalmer for five years.
The Hart-Wallace Funeral Home will also be shut down until another funeral director is granted a license to operate it. Wallace could theoretically continue to own his funeral homes, including the Hart-Wallace home, by hiring another funeral director to run them.
Last year, Wallace had claimed his crematory in New Hampshire was handling more than 2,000 cremations a year, most of them for Massachusetts funeral homes. Bayview thrived by charging $200 or less to pick up a body at a Massachusetts funeral home, cremate it, and return the ashes.
Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com. 