The Cassity shell game may have came to an end this past week when aFederal judge ordered the seizure of NPS computers and 260 bankers boxes of records. Taking a page from a Six Feet Under script, NPS officers sought to conceal their misdeeds by hiding records and computers in crypts located at
plea
The Cassity Plea Agreement: Extenuating Circumstances
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in NPS/Lincoln
I have only scanned Doug Cassity’s plea agreement once, but two issues jumped out from that document. The plea agreement is based on the US Sentencing Guidelines, and Page 28 of agreement explains that the Government and the defendant did not agree as to whether guidelines relating to economic losses should be applicable …
The Cassity Plea: A new shell game?
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in NPS/Lincoln, Preneed
This was not the ending that most expected. After decades of playing shell games with regulators and funeral homes, Doug Cassity accepted a plea bargain rather than go to trial. Brent Cassity also accepted a plea bargain, and the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports that attorneys for one of the remaining defendants were scurrying to…
The Smart Deal: Federal time in the offing
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Cemeteries
In the end, Clayton will likely spend many of his final days in a federal penitentiary. The Memphis Commercial Appeal outlines the plea bargain to be entered by Clayton Smart to conclude criminal investigations in Tennessee, Oklahoma and Michigan.
Comments made to the Commercial Appeal story express outrage with the prosecutors and the plea bargain.
Under New Management!
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Cemeteries
Kansas regulators want to be able to put a new sign in front of a troubled Hutchison cemetery: Under New Management! And, it would please the state of Kansas and the city of Hutchison if that new management team does not include them.
State and local officials appreciate that the grave lot owners, and…
The Domino Effect: the Smart plea
By Bill Stalter on
Posted in Cemeteries
Forest Hills’ preneed consumers were hoping for news of retribution, but Clayton Smart’s anticipated plea bargain was put on hold. If news reports are accurate, authorities from Tennessee (and perhaps Michigan and Indiana) have their sites on the individual(s) who facilitated the transactions that eventually left preneed trusts and permanent maintenance trusts depleted.…