A local funeral director is accusing former employees of theft after admitting to fraudulent practices when her insurance license was revoked in June.

Melissa Morris, who co-owns Morris-David’s Safford Funeral Home with her husband, Carl, lost her license to sell insurance on June 13 and is under investigation by the Arizona State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers on allegations of fraud and theft.

The investigation stems from the consent order Morris signed when she had her insurance license revoked by the Arizona Department of Insurance in June. The Courier obtained these public documents from the Arizona Department of Insurance earlier this week. In the consent order, essentially the same as a plea agreement, Morris admitted to falsifying a client’s signature on a faulty insurance claim and never filing the insurance claim for a client, Thomas Lopez, after he submitted an application to do so. Morris also collected $6,500 in insurance premiums from five separate clients between March 31, 2004, and August 30, 2005, and failed to remit the premium and policy applications to the insurance company, Great Western.

Great Western Insurance Company pulled all of the money from Morris’ reserve account to honor the policy for $3,710 that Lopez paid for in January 2004, and took $825 to help cover part of its losses from the five insurance policies done through Morris that Great Western honored.

The policy Lopez paid to have opened was allowed to lapse by Morris on Sept. 29, 2005. Morris took Lopez’s check and cashed and deposited it into the account for her business on Jan. 26, 2004, while only making $364 in payments for Lopez’s policy.

It was a separate policy Morris opened on Feb. 6 for Lopez that raised red flags at Great Western. The insurance company cancelled the second insurance policy, identifying it as fraudulent, and removed the $3,710 from Morris’ reserve account to honor Lopez’s initial insurance policy that he applied for in January 2004.

In addition to having her insurance license revoked, Morris was ordered by Arizona Insurance Director Christina Urias to pay the remaining $5,675 in restitution to Great Western. Despite repeated attempts, the Courier was unable to confirm with representatives from Great Western whether restitution payments from Morris have begun.

Morris refused to comment for the story.

Former employees accused of theft

When trouble began at the Morris-David’s Funeral Home, several former employees say the finger of blame was pointed at them.

Steve Garcia, Wendy Blair, Maria Moore and one other employee were accused of stealing varying amounts of money. Blair and Garcia both said the amount seems to change weekly.

Garcia said when he left the funeral home in May, shortly after Morris was subpoenaed by the Arizona Department of Insurance, Morris accused him of stealing a little more than $5,000 from the funeral home. The last time he heard accusations, that number had risen to $52,000.

Garcia, who talked to lawyer about the allegations Morris was making against him, said he wants it to stop.

“We don’t want to be the fall people for her mistakes,” Garcia said.

Blair, who resigned from Morris-David’s Safford Funeral Home at the beginning of the year, has faced similar problems to Garcia with the amount Morris is alleging she stole always on the rise.

“Every other day it’s a different story,” Blair said. “One day it’s $11,000; the next day it’s $18,000.”

Blair, Garcia and Moore all reported a pattern of harassment from Morris, claiming Morris went out of her way to talk to potential and current employers about the allegations of theft.

Morris went as far as calling another local funeral home after Moore’s brother died, telling the funeral director about Moore’s alleged role in the theft of money from Morris-David’s Safford Funeral Home.

Moore said the accusations of theft by Morris have been little more than harassment on her part.

“That’s a lot of (stolen) money to be getting blamed for, and (Morris) not go to the police about it,” Moore said.

Garcia said in addition to wanting to clear his name from the muck of the allegations, he is also concerned for customers who may have taken out insurance or pre-need policies with Morris during the last few years.

“They should call the insurance company and make sure the policy is still there,” Garcia said.

The ongoing investigation

The Arizona Department of Insurance has the ability to conduct an investigation of charges such as these and hand them over to the attorney general for criminal prosecution.

Arizona Department of Insurance public information officer Erin Klug said no such investigation is ongoing. Locally, Safford Police Chief John Griffin echoed those sentiments and said no criminal investigation is being conducted.

Moore filed a police report with Safford Police on April 20, documenting the fraud allegations against Morris on behalf of Thomas Lopez. Moore was living with Lopez’s grandson at the time.

Because Lopez did not come forward to press criminal charges, the police were unable to take the case forward. Moore said Lopez did not want to cause problems for Morris because he ended up getting his insurance policy.

“Great Western went ahead and honored the policy,” Moore said. “Great Western made it right.”

What is ongoing is an investigation by the Arizona State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers, which has two separate cases against Morris underway.

Morris had two initial interviews in Phoenix on Tuesday, BFDE Executive Director Rudy Thomas said. The interviews are the first step in the investigative process, which can involve two or three different phases, Thomas said.

The first interview is progressing down the informal track, where charges are less severe, and consists mainly of fines, Thomas said. The date for that informal hearing is scheduled for Oct. 17.

The second interview was voted on by the board of the Office of Administrative hearing to move forward to the formal interview stage, where the most serious charges can apply. Fines can top out at $3,000 per offense, and there is the possibility of the revocation of the funeral director’s license, Thomas said.

Thomas said the board will put together a consent order before it goes to the formal hearing, giving Morris a chance to essentially make a plea agreement rather than appear before a magistrate judge.

“We don’t know where that’s going to go,” Thomas said. “The board felt it was serious enough to take it to the formal hearing in front of a magistrate judge.”

Contact Adam Gaub at 428-2560, ext. 240, or e-mail him at adam@eacourier.com.