BOSTON, Oct. 20, 2014—A former Dorchester funeral director was held on high bail at his Superior Court arraignment today on charges he stole nearly $150,000 from clients – and kept the remains of 12 human bodies in a storage facility for years after he had been entrusted to fulfill their final wishes, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

JOSEPH V. O’DONNELL (D.O.B. 9/10/58) was arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on the following charges:

• 12 counts of improper disposal of human remains for allegedly using a Weymouth storage facility to hold decomposing human bodies entrusted to his care;
• 18 counts of fiduciary embezzlement and one count of fiduciary embezzlement by scheme for using funeral pre-payments for his own purposes instead of keeping them in a trust under the contract he signed;
• 11 counts of larceny over $250 from a person over 60, six counts of larceny over $250 from a disabled person, one count of larceny over $250, and one count of larceny over $250 by scheme for the theft of those funeral pre-payments;
• 11 counts of larceny over $250 for failing to have 11 of the Weymouth bodies buried or cremated after taking payment to do so (one body cannot be charged at this time because it has not been identified and no records have been located showing that O’Donnell accepted payment for its burial or cremation);
• Four counts each of statutory forgery and statutory uttering for falsifying signatures on two medical examiner’s certificates and two death certificates and then presenting those official state documents as genuine;
• Two counts each of common-law forgery and common-law uttering for falsifying signatures on two certificates of cremation, which are not state documents but rather records created by crematory employees;
• Four counts of returning a false death certificate; and
• 201 counts of acting as a funeral director without a license.

Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Walsh, chief of the DA’s Special Prosecutions Unit, requested bail of $250,000.  Clerk Magistrate Gary Wilson imposed $50,000 bail and ordered that, in the event O’Donnell is released on bail, he be fitted with a GPS monitor, not travel outside of Massachusetts without notifying prosecutors and providing his travel itinerary, and have no direct or indirect contact with the victims in this case.  O’Donnell has remained held in lieu of $10,000 bail since his April arraignment in Dorchester District Court.

Prosecutors allege that O’Donnell bilked clients out of thousands of dollars while operating the Neponset Avenue funeral home founded by his grandfather.  O’Donnell was first licensed as a funeral director in 1980 but in 2008 failed to renew his license as required by law.  After a 90 day grace period that would have provided him an extended opportunity to renew that license, he allegedly oversaw the funeral, burial, or cremation of at least 201 individuals.  The true number of instances in which O’Donnell acted as a funeral director without a license is likely much higher, prosecutors said.

During the course of his unlicensed operation, he allegedly forged the signatures of medical examiners and other professionals on various documents, including death certificates and certificates of cremation.  He also entered false information on some death certificates, prosecutors said.

Among the clients served by O’Donnell after his license lapsed were those who entered into pre-need contracts, which allow individuals to plan and pay for their final expenses.  These prepayments should have been placed into a trust and used upon the individual’s death, but O’Donnell deposited the funds into his funeral home’s general account.  When the funeral home was foreclosed on in 2013, O’Donnell had 31pre-need contracts with clients who were still living but whose funds – totaling nearly $150,000 – were gone, prosecutors said.  Many of those individuals were elderly or disabled.

During the course of their investigation into O’Donnell’s illegal practices, investigators obtained a warrant to search a Weymouth storage unit he rented.  Inside, they discovered the decomposing remains of 12 people, all of whom had been transported to the facility from the Dorchester funeral home.  To date, 11 of the bodies have been positively identified.  Of those, eight of the individuals’ families had received cremated remains that O’Donnell represented were those of their loved ones, but which investigators believe were someone else’s.

O’Donnell was represented by attorney Andrew Stockwell-Alpert.  He will return to court Dec. 9.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.