JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The director of a Jacksonville funeral home, where three bodies were found decomposing, is facing new felony charges but is no longer charged with improperly preserving human bodies.
The State Attorney's Office filed new charges against Elliot Graham, 49, on Wednesday. He is now facing two additional felony charges of grand theft and making false insurance claims and a new misdemeanor charge of petit theft.
However, the five misdemeanor charges for improper preservation of a human body Graham was previously facing, were dropped on Wednesday, Feb. 28, court records show.
Graham was arrested in February on previous charges of false and fraudulent insurance claims, grand theft and five counts of misdemeanor improper preservation of a human body.
His arrest came after several families accused Graham of mishandling the bodies of their family members.
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According to court records, Graham refused multiple compliance checks before an inspection warrant was executed at Marion Graham Mortuaries on Jan. 30.
Graham's arrest warrant states law enforcement found three bodies "infested" with insects inside bags at his business on Gandy Street in Jacksonville.
First Coast News spoke with the family of Ola Mae Brown Jackson just one day before they discovered their loved one was one of the bodies found inside the funeral home.
"She was for justice, and she would go to bat for you 100%, and she would expect us to stand up for her. Fight for her rights," her family members said in a February press conference.
They're one of several families that didn't get the services they paid Graham for, according to police.
Another family told First Coast News they used Marion Graham Mortuaries for their cousin's funeral and said their loved one was not embalmed correctly.
"We were barely able to have a wake," said Danielle Streater. "The family viewed the body briefly. From there, we had to close it off for the public because the smell was horrible."
The disturbing discovery at the funeral home prompted Florida's chief financial officer to call for funeral home reform.
Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis described the conditions at the mortuary as "alarming" during a Senate meeting on Feb. 13, and called for the amendment of State Bill 1098 to give the state "enhanced oversight over the deathcare industry."
Patronis argued that if the Department of Financial Services (DFS) had greater emergency oversight over Florida funeral homes, his team could have addressed the issues found at the Jacksonville mortuary sooner, rather than later.
"We could not access the property, because we needed a felony to be able to do this," Patronis said while testifying before the Senate's Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government. "We needed to be able to act swiftly."
The bill unanimously passed through the House on Friday but was substituted by the Senate on Wednesday with House Bill 989, which includes the same funeral home reforms. The bill will have to go back to the House for approval before it's sent to the governor's desk.