NEW YORK – The owner of the Camelot Funeral Home in Mount Vernon, Michael Naughton, 55, has been indicted by a Westchester County grand jury on charges that he illegally provided funeral directing services for dozens of deceased people after his license had been revoked.
State Attorney General Letitia James said a January inspection of Camelot by the State Department of Health discovered 13 bodies in various states of decomposition and 17 boxes of cremated remains.
“Planning a loved one’s funeral can be among the most difficult and vulnerable times in a person’s life,” James said. “Naughton heartlessly took advantage of New Yorkers while knowingly operated his funeral home without a license and failed to properly take care of the remains in his possession.”
The attorney general’s 20-count indictment includes eight counts of grand larceny, one count of attempted grand larceny, criminal possession of a forged instrument, scheme to defraud, and nine counts of unlicensed practice of funeral directing.
If convicted of the top county, Naughton faces up to seven years in state prison.
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