Doug Cassity has filed a motion to modify the order dismissing him from the SDR’s civil lawsuit. Mr. Cassity asserts that he and his family should be freed of the reign of terror and wrongdoing of the Texas regulators and their attorneys. Seeking a dismissal with prejudice, Mr. Cassity seeks to have the SDR’s claims dropped permanently against himself and his son. While the motion hints at various motivations that Mr. Cassity may have for testifying, he is not inclined to do so if the SDR can reinstate claims after his testimony is given.
The motion and its attachment were prepared by Mr. Cassity, and offer a glimpse of the man and his thought process. Mr. Cassity offers a unique interpretation of the Missouri preneed law passed in 1982. We will explore some of Mr. Cassity’s issues in subsequent posts, but the initial issue that caught our attention was the characterization of the Missouri law as a burial insurance statute and the reliance upon Missouri’s cemetery law for deferring trust deposits until a contract was paid in full. We anticipate that Mr. Cassity is alluding to how endowed care contributions are administered under Chapter 214 because that law did not have a preneed trusting provision until well after the 1992 lawsuit was filed by the Attorney General. Many Missouri cemeteries assert that an endowed care contribution is not required until the lot sale is completed. Mr. Cassity asserts that NPS’ attorneys advised that the company could rely upon such an interpretation when addressing an ambiguity in Missouri’s Chapter 436. Mr. Wittner may have a different recollection of that advice, which gives rise to one of Mr. Cassity’s motivations to testify. The exhibit indicates Mr. Wittner is now cooperating with the SDR.
The motion reflects a desperate man that still seems prepared to say anything. Dismissed from the civil suit, Mr. Cassity will no longer be provided pleadings filed with the court. You could say that Doug has been put into ‘isolation’. He has been cut off from a legal proceeding that continues to put his son at risk. There may be no saving himself from the ‘reign of terror’, but we will have to wait and see if the SDR is prepared to offer up Brent for the truth.