W, Allbaugh (FEMA), 'Funeralgate' and Dutch morgue in NO

[bobbieinok]

The court case that started 'Funeralgate'

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/vol18/issue45/pols.embalming.html

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Hood's parents allege that "embalming procedures were not properly performed" and that when Hood's body was shown to family members, "there was purging of fluids from his body." The suit adds that after Hood's body was placed in a mausoleum last July, there were "problems with odors, gnats and fluid seepage."

In April, Hood's mother was quoted by the Austin American-Statesman as saying that when she looked at her son's body, the embalming looked "like a rookie did it." Last month, after investigating the work done in the Hood case, the TFSC recommended that the funeral director at Hampton-Vaughan, the funeral home where Hood's parents bought the services from SCI, be fined $1,000 for the incident. The agency also recommended that the funeral home itself be fined $1,000.

The TFSC became concerned about embalming practices at Sparkman-Crane after they found records which appeared to indicate that apprentice embalmers were doing embalmings at the site without proper supervision. On May 7, just two months before Hood was embalmed at Sparkman-Crane, May wrote to the TFSC commissioners about problems she was having in getting proper documents from the SCI-owned funeral home. May told the commissioners that the documents the agency got from the funeral home "differed from information in other records filed with this agency, thereby calling into question the credibility and reliability of the documents produced." May explained that "the most effective and efficient means of acquiring the information was via subpoena duces tecum." So, on March 31, 1998, the agency sent SCI 23 subpoenas, seeking 15 months' worth of funeral-related documents. According to May's report, the TFSC got a letter from an SCI lawyer on April 6, saying that "the SCI affiliates would not respond to the subpoenas."

more....

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Relationship to W and Allbaugh

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/vol18/issue45/pols.sci.html

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Clearly, the politico with the most to lose in Funeralgate is Bush. And he's staying as far from the scandal as he can. But so far, Waltrip has done the governor few favors. By issuing conflicting interrogatory answers, Waltrip appears to have impugned his own credibility as well as the governor's.

So which is it? Did Waltrip talk to Bush about SCI's complaints or not? Either way, the manner in which Bush's office handled this case does not bode well for the governor.

Two weeks ago, Johnnie B. Rogers, SCI's Austin-based lawyer, repeated the claim that Waltrip "never talked to the governor" about the TFSC investigation. Why, then, did SCI's in-house lawyer, Daniel Reat, swear that Waltrip talked to Bush? In a notarized court document, Reat said that the answers in the first interrogatory "are either within his personal knowledge or based on information obtained from other persons, and are true and correct."

And why did Allbaugh get involved? Did he, as Bush's chief of staff, simply make his own decision to intervene on behalf of SCI? Could Allbaugh have been persuaded by a $35,000 political contribution? Allbaugh, who left the governor's office on July 1 to work full time as campaign manager for Bush's presidential campaign, hasn't been deposed yet, but he will be soon. And he will be a key witness when May's case goes to trial, as will Bush's legal counsel, Margaret Wilson.

more....

!!!!!!!!NOTE role of Allbaugh, W's 1st head of FEMA