Suffern Funeral Home Director Sentenced To State Prison
Rockland County District Attorney Tom Walsh announced the sentencing of Scarr Funeral Home owner Leonard Scarr to an indeterminate term in state prison of two to six years’ incarceration for his convictions of two counts of grand larceny in the third degree, one count of forgery in the second degree, and one count of scheme to defraud. Judge Schwartz also executed a restitution order.
Specifically, Scarr was convicted for stealing in excess of $3,000 from two victims. For the first victim, after contracting with him to set up a pre-paid burial account, Scarr deposited the victim’s money into an interest-bearing account. Regarding this account, Scarr could only access the account’s funds upon the death of the victim account holder. In order to obtain the funds, Scarr instead forged a death certificate in the victim’s name, presented the forged certificate to representatives of the bank where the burial escrow account was held, withdrew the accounts’ funds, and used them for various personal expenses without any permission or authority. At the time of the withdrawal and as of today, the respective accounts’ holder is still alive. Regarding the second victim, Scarr also contacted with her to set up a pre- paid burial account, but simply never deposited the victim’s money into a mandated interest-bearing account.
Instead, Scarr used the victim’s funds for various personal expenses without any permission or authority.
A joint investigation by the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office and the Town of Ramapo Police Department, confirmed 88 victims an aggregate loss of just under $500,000.00. In pleading guilty to the scheme to defraud, the defendant admitted to knowingly and willfully failing to deposit and keep such moneys for uses not authorized. At sentencing, three victims addressed the court and defendant on the record with victim impact statements. 32 other victims provided written impact statements to the Rockland County Department of Probation for Judge Schwartz to review.
In the Fall of 2020, in an effort to ensure that all the victims will be fully reimbursed, the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, as Plaintiff- Claiming Authority, filed a civil forfeiture action in the Rockland County Supreme Court seeking forfeiture from Leonard Scarr’s property and proceeds from the sale of the Scarr Funeral Home. When the sale of the property closed in the summer of 2021, the sum of $540,000.00 (to be paid at $9,000 per victim for the next five years) was set aside to pay back the victims of Scarr’s theft. As of today, 15 victims have been refunded an aggregate amount of $59,582.56 and the above mentioned nine victims remain, need to be refunded an aggregate amount of $36,045.62. The remaining 64 victims chose to have the Edwards Funeral Home honor their preneed contact with Scarr Funeral Home, and said victims, Edwards Funeral Home, and the Scarr victim receivership entered into a notarized contractual agreement ensuring that these victims’ services will be honored.
“Losing a loved one is one of the most challenging times in an individual’s life. The defendant took advantage of these difficult situations the victims were in for his own personal gain. I hope today’s sentence, which included the full reimbursement of funds, gives the victims some comfort. I commend the detectives of the Ramapo Police Department for their dedication and professionalism investigating this case.” said District Attorney Tom Walsh.
Executive Assistant District Attorney Michael Dugandzic and Senior Assistant District Attorney Melissa Robustello prosecuted the case.
