BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) – A doctor and former Massachusetts medical examiner faces eight theft charges related to the illegal operation of a crematorium in Seabrook.
The state closed down the Bayview Crematory in February 2005 after police found unidentified remains, a body in a broken refrigeration unit and incomplete records. The crematorium had operated without state or federal licenses for six years.
Dr. Putnam Breed, 68, of Hampton Falls, had been charged previously with two counts of fraudulent handling of documents.
That indictment was superseded by a new one with eight charges: six of theft by deception and two of theft by unauthorized taking. He is scheduled for trial in January.
Breed, a former Massachusetts district medical examiner, told police in March 2005 that he had been contacted by Derek Wallace, of Salisbury, Mass., former owner of Bayview crematory, to inspect bodies and issue cremation certificates. He said the people had died in Massachusetts, but he signed the certificates at Bayview Crematory because it was more convenient.
“We are charging that he took money for services he didn’t render,” said Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams. “The other parties’ cases have all been rescheduled, to run after Breed.”
The crematory investigation began in 2004 after authorites arrested a New Hampshire deputy assistant medical examiner. Gene Nigro was accused of signing cremation certificates without first seeing the bodies and sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty.
The investigation then focussed on Bayview Crematory and Wallace, whose Massachusetts funeral director’s license was suspended in August 2004. Prosecutors accused Wallace of transferring ownership of Bayview to his mother and stepfather to get around a Massachusetts law that prohibits funeral directors from owning crematoriums.
Prosecutors said Wallace then schemed with his mother and stepfather to funnel clients from the Massachusetts funeral homes he operated to illegal cremations in New Hampshire.
Indictments have been handed down for several other people, including former crematory employee James Fuller. Fuller died after pleading guilty to eight felony charges of falsifying cremation records.
A number of civil lawsuits have also been filed against funeral homes in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts that sent their remains to Bayview.
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Information from: Portsmouth Herald, http://www.seacoastonline.com
AP-ES-11-23-06 1633EST
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