The Westchester Brief | 04.06.26: Six Years, No Oversight

A Mount Vernon funeral home owner had his license revoked in 2019. He kept operating for six years. The New York Attorney General unsealed a 20-count indictment. Inspectors found 13 bodies in decomposition and 17 boxes of cremated remains. The real story is the regulatory failure that let it happen.

In This Episode:
(0:00) Camelot Funeral Home indictment — regulatory failure in Mount Vernon
(1:45) Westchester Power shutdown leaves no alternative to Con Edison
(2:15) New York State budget misses deadline for 7th consecutive year
(2:30) Westchester opens Mental Health Safety Net Clinic in White Plains

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

A funeral homeowner in Mount Vernon had his license revoked in 2019. He kept operating for six years. The state did nothing. And dozens of grieving families paid for services from a man who was not legally allowed to provide them. Here is what that tells you about who is watching. This is the Westchester Brief. I'm Jim. Let's get into it. New York Attorney General Letitia James unsealed a 20-count indictment against Michael Naughton, the 55-year-old owner of Camelot Funeral Home in Mount Vernon. Inspectors found 13 bodies in various states of decomposition and 17 boxes of cremated remains at the facility. Naughton's funeral director license was revoked in 2019. Despite that, he continued operating, allegedly collecting payments from families who had no way of knowing the person handling their loved ones was not licensed. This is not a crime story. It is a regulatory failure story. The questions that matter are not about Naughton. His case will play out in court. The questions are about the system. How did the New York State Department of Health allow an unlicensed operator to handle the dead for six years after license revocation? What inspection regime existed? And why did it fail? And what recourse do the families who paid Camelot have? Mount Vernon is one of Westchester's most underserved communities, and it has been underfunded for decades, and this happened at the moment of greatest vulnerability when families were grieving and trusting the system to protect them. The system did not. If you are selecting a funeral home in New York, you can verify licensing through the State Department of Health. That database is public. Use it. Here is what else is happening across Westchester this week. Westchester residents no longer have an alternative to Con Edison. Westchester Power, the community choice aggregation program that served 26 municipalities, shut down in November after the state imposed new requirements that Sustainable Westchester called economically unfeasible. On April 1st, the Public Service Commission denied Sustainable Westchester's request for an extension to file its annual report because the request was submitted after the deadline. Sustainable Westchester says a replacement program is coming sometime this year, but there is no timeline, no contract, and no confirmed municipalities. Con Edison's rate hikes are locked in through 2028, and right now nobody has a competitive option. New York State missed its budget deadline for the seventh consecutive year. Lawmakers approved a one-week spending extender through tomorrow. Key sticking points include auto insurance reform, changes to the 2019 climate law, and school aid formulas. Westchester County has opened a new mental health safety net clinic in White Plains. The facility restores the county's direct role in outpatient behavioral health services for the first time in nearly 15 years. That is your Westchester brief for Monday, April 6th. If you want this delivered to your inbox every morning, subscribe to the newsletter at ILiveHereWestchester.com. I'm Jim, and I live here. I'll see you tomorrow.