A Public Apology For Corpse Abuse

by Deanna Boyd
A man is ordered to apologize on a billboard for mishandling dead bodies.

Fort Worth, Texas - Almost four years after authorities found three decomposing bodies inside a repossessed van, the owner of a former cadaver transportation company is apologizing for his actions on a highway billboard.

Donald Richard Short, 44, was required to write the message and pay for the billboard in Fort Worth as part of his probation, prosecutor Hugo Martinez said.

Short was sentenced to two years probation in April 2006 after pleading no contest to three charges of corpse abuse for mishandling the bodies of Lonnie Leffall, Odis Hughes and Thomas Shadowens.

Williams Funeral Chapel had hired Short’s company, North Star Transportation, to take the bodies of the three men, who had died in 2000 of natural causes, to a crematorium and deliver their ashes to the appropriate locations.

Image: A judge required Donald Richard Short to post his apology on a billboard

But after Short’s van was towed from his Hurst, Texas, home, the remains were found March 2, 2005, zipped in dirty body bags, stacked atop one another and hidden under cardboard boxes.

“I should treat the deceased in my care with dignity and respect. I utterly failed them, their families and the community. I am remorseful and I apologize - Donald Short,” reads the billboard message.

Judge Deborah Nekhom Harris ordered Short to make the unusual public apology. She could not be reached for comment.

“She told him, ‘You’re going to have to do this, so you might want to start saving money for it,’” Martinez said.

Short also was ordered to write letters of apology to the families, pay a $4,000 fine and restitution, perform community service and never again work in the funeral industry. Case records show Short’s probation was extended a year this past March, evidently to give Short more time to pay the restitution.

Todd Dalton, sales manager for Lamar Advertising, said the billboard’s message will remain up for a month. He said the cost of renting a billboard at that location is $2,500 to $3,000. Martinez said Short had submitted a few drafts of his apology for approval by the judge and Martinez.

“I got the feeling that he really was remorseful, especially in light of what he wrote,” Martinez said. “I think it was a good idea on the part of the judge making this part of his probation.”

Bobbie Tarpley, Leffall’s cousin, said she believes that Short feels bad about his actions and that his intentions were not malicious. She said she hopes the billboard will prevent others from making a similar poor choice.

“Maybe this won’t happen again by the judge making that,” Tarpley said. “We’ll be a little more careful about the actions we do or don’t take.”


Author: Deanna Boyd

Source - http://www.kansascity.com/

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