Except for one major thing.
In her response to Barbara Watters' lawsuit, Rachel Riso acknowledged her client has the body.
Defendant Chappel admits the body of decedent, Paul Barton, is currently in the possession of the Jasper County Coroner.
Riso said any damages Watters suffered were her own fault.
"Plaintiff’s damages, if any, were proximately caused by her own negligence and/or acts and/or negligence and acts of others who are beyond the control of Defendant Chappel, and whose fault should be compared."
The lawyer also noted that Watters cannot establish the "actual value" of Barton's body and said Watters is not in danger of losing "her said property unless it be taken out of the possession of Defendant Chappel, or otherwise secured."
The body, the response said, "was seized under legal process in connection with potential criminal proceedings."
The Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney's office initially charged Watters with felony abandonment of a corpse, but the charges were dismissed by Judge Joseph Hensley who reasoned you can't abandon a corpse when you are keeping it in a freezer in your bedroom.
Chappel is asking for a jury trial.
2 comments:
I am disgusted that money will be spent on a trial (if it goes this far). The judge dismissed the charges against her and the right thing to do would be to assist this woman in getting the husband buried or cremated. If she wants the husband's body to refreeze and continue to hold him in her bedroom then she should be allowed to do so. I am wondering if the man had a living will or some sort of plan for his end of life care? If the wife is the only living relative, then she has the say-so of what happens to her husband. What we think is "normal" and what the wife thinks is normal maybe two different things, but if the husband is not being maimed then we need to let it go.
There are laws which govern the reporting of a person's death to the proper authorities. There are laws and regulations that specify how bodies are to be handled and buried or cremated once a death has been reported.
The idea that people should be able to store human bodies in freezers is ridiculous.
Among things, what happens when there is a power outage or the service gets disconnected if the bill hasn't been paid?
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