Lawsuit names state
in case of mortuary fraud

HILO >> Customers have filed suit alleging the Memorial Mortuary in Hilo buried some of their family members in inferior caskets or none at all or that previously contracted burial plans cannot be fulfilled.

The suit is an outgrowth of a state criminal investigation in which members of the Robert Diego family admitted this summer to stealing $500,000 from a trust account for pre-need funeral plans between 1989 and 2002.

The suit was filed yesterday in Circuit Court on Oahu by attorneys Michael Green, Howard Glickstein and Gary Levitt against Diego; his wife, Momi; and their daughter Bobbie Jean, as well as the family's companies Memorial Mortuary and Memorial Mortuary Funeral Plans.

The suit also names the state as a defendant because the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs allegedly knew about the companies' financial difficulties as early as 1990 but failed to inform the attorney general as required by law.

Brenda Carreira, attorney for the Diegos, said the suit names the state as a "deep pocket," a source of money needed because attorneys for the plaintiffs know the Diegos have no money.

The plaintiffs are divided into two groups. One consists of people who bought pre-need funeral plans and now find there is no money to carry out burials.

But Robert Diego responded yesterday that West Hawaii Mortuary, an allied company owned by another of his daughters, continues to perform funerals for customers who contracted them.

A second group of plaintiffs in the suit said they bought caskets for family members, but cheaper ones were substituted or their family members were buried with no casket at all.

Diego pointed out that the accusation was raised before, but none of the people making the complaints opened family members' graves to verify it.