A Montrose County judge awarded the maximum damages possible to a woman who sued a funeral home owner for cutting up her brother's body and selling his head, arms and legs instead of cremating him.
District Judge Mary Deganhart found Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors' owner Megan Hess acted maliciously and deliberately and breached the contract she agreed to fulfill in handling the final arrangements for Michael Good. She awarded his sister, Julee Glynn of Durango, $468,010 for past and future emotional distress.
Glynn alleged in the suit that FBI personnel revealed they had evidence that Good's head, arms and legs were dismembered and sold. She discovered this after taking her brother's ashes to Colorado Mesa University to have them tested by forensics teams after learning of the case through news reports. Good died at the age of 57 in 2017, after a long history of brain tumors, seizures and other neurological problems.
Cutting up Good's body was against his wishes, as he told his sister he wanted to go to heaven "whole" prior to his death after a lengthy history of health problems. Glynn testified that Hess had inquired about donation and she was very clear about her brother's desire for whole-body cremation.
Testing of the cremains that Hess represented as Good's ashes revealed they were, in fact, dry concrete.
Deganhart wrote in her order that Hess' actions had not only caused pain and suffering for Glynn and her family, but also that Hess acted willfully, maliciously and with reckless indifference.
"The defendants knew what they were doing when they harvested Mr. Good's head, arms, and legs and proceeded to sell them," the judge wrote.
Hess, who never appeared in court in the case, acted as her own attorney. Deganhart, however, ruled in her order that Hess's companies, Sunset Mesa and nonprofit corporation Donor Services Inc., were left without representation because state law prohibits a corporation from being represented by a non-lawyer. Though Hess filed an answer to the lawsuit in December, she didn't pay the filing fees, and the court granted an extension. But the fees were never paid and Hess's answer was struck.
Shortly before the Feb. 5 hearing, Hess filed a motion for extension and claimed she could defend herself if she could have the evidence that had been seized by the FBI in their February 2018 raid. The judge denied that request.
Deganhart also ordered Hess to pay back the cost of Good's final arrangements, a little more than $1,000, as well as the maximum for emotional pain and suffering.
The court also found that Hess owes 9 percent interest per year on the total damages, dating from July 2018 when Glynn first heard the news that her brother's body parts were sold.
This is the first civil suit to receive a judgment and order since the FBI's raid of the funeral home. The first suit filed, in the death of Gerald "Cactus" Hollenbeck, is scheduled for a jury trial next month. Hess also faces two more pending civil suits, including a class-action complaint filed earlier this month with more than 60 plaintiffs.
No criminal charges have been filed in connection with the FBI's investigation, which has been ongoing for more than a year.
