TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis called for funeral home reforms during a Senate committee on Tuesday, following the arrest of a Jacksonville funeral home director accused of abandoning and mishandling human remains at Marion Graham Mortuaries.
During the meeting Tuesday morning, Patronis described the conditions at the mortuary as "alarming" and added his team worked with legislative partners to amend 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 Tuesday morning. "We needed to be able to act swiftly."
The arrest warrant for 49-year-old Elliot Graham, the owner, and director of the mortuary in question, states the electricity for Marion Graham Mortuaries located on Grandy Street in Jacksonville was turned off in October 2023.
An inspection warrant was not executed at the mortuary until Jan. 30, after Graham refused multiple complaint checks, court records show.
While executing the warrant, law enforcement discovered three bodies infested with insects inside bags at the business, the warrant said.
"The funeral director there had left, ultimately had turned himself in, but the worst thing I could charge the individual with was a misdemeanor," Patronis said.
It wasn't until Graham was arrested on charges of false and fraudulent insurance claims and grand theft, which are both felonies, that DFS was able to get the appropriate warrants needed to access the property, according to Patronis.
"Those families shouldn't have had to wait a single minute to be able to have their situation addressed," he added.
First Coast News spoke with the family of Ola Mae Brown Jackson just one day before they found out her body was found in the funeral home.
The discovery came weeks after Jackson's husband said he went to the funeral home to confront Graham after waiting for months to get his wife's remains. He said Graham made him wait outside for 45 minutes before bringing out what he claimed were Jackson's remains. That's when they filed a complaint.
"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 during a press conference earlier this month.
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.
"No one in our state should go through what these families had to endure and we will do everything in our power to ensure the perpetrators are held accountable and the law is changed so this never happens again in Florida," Patronis said.
The committee voted unanimously on State Bill 1098 on Tuesday and it could be brought to the Senate floor as early as Wednesday for approval, at the discretion of the Senate President. It would still need to pass in the House and get the Governor's signature before becoming law.
Graham faces charges of false and fraudulent insurance claims, grand theft and five misdemeanor counts of improper preservation of a human body, in connection with his leadership at the funeral home.
He is being held in Duval County Jail on no bond. Graham is set to be back in court on Feb. 29 at 9 a.m.