Funeral home files emergency court petition, alleges Idaho coroner is delaying cremations

POCATELLO — A Pocatello funeral home has filed an emergency petition, asking a judge to force the Bannock County Coroner to act on multiple delayed cremations.

The Cornelison Funeral Home filed an Emergency Consolidated Petition for Writ of Mandamus with the court on Wednesday, saying that Bannock County Coroner Torey Danner has failed to sign off on three cremations, delaying the process and allegedly violating Idaho Code.

According to Idaho Administrative Code, "no dead human body, regardless of cause of death, is to be cremated, nor is actual cremation of such a body to be commenced, unless the county coroner in the county in which the death occurred gives written authorization to cremate the body."

The petition claims three bodies have had their cremations delayed because Danner has not signed off on them to begin the process.

Court documents state that all three of the deaths were of natural causes. One of the decedents died on Aug. 12, another on Aug. 16 and the third on Aug. 17. In each of the cases, next of kin had signed off to authorize a cremation.

The funeral home alleges that Danner has "failed or refused" to sign the permit for over three days in the first case and over one day in the last two cases, without providing a reason or stating that his office is conducting any investigation.

According to the petition, the funeral home's refrigeration facility is "operating under a finite physical and mechanical capacity," which means that the delays in cremations are causing a backlog of human remains.

"This backlog creates severe, immediate operational gridlock, compromises sanitary safeguards, inflicts severe emotional distress upon grieving families waiting for closure and subjects (Cornelison Funeral Home) to compounding civil storage liabilities," states the petition.

The Funeral Home asks the judge to force Danner to immediately sign the authorizations to "formally assume investigative jurisdiction over each individual decedent."

EastIdahoNews.com has reached out to Danner and to the Bannock County Prosecutor's Office for a comment, but we have not heard back. We will update if we receive a comment.

Related topics