This is a follow-up to the matter of fraud and unlicensed funeral direction described in a previous entry, Fraudulent Pike County Funeral Director Charged with 19 Felonies.
Ultimately faced with one count of acting as a funeral director without a license and 24 charges of insurance and funeral service fraud, Richard Justice pleaded not guilty to the initial misdemeanor and nineteen felonies filed against him, as well as to subsequent charges, one of which may have been filed in June 2007 (Eastern Kentucky Broadcasting reported in July 2007 that Justice was arraigned on July 25 following a June indictment) and three of which were filed in February 2008 (Eastern Kentucky Broadcasting). In April 2008, he was also charged with driving under the influence and without a license plate (Eastern Kentucky Broadcasting, WSAZ).
Offered a plea agreement that included a recommendation of probation if restitution was paid (somebody smack that prosecutor!), the ironically named Justice pleaded guilty to all counts in May 2008. He was placed on home incarceration and ordered to replay more than $61,000 to his victims or their estates by his July 1 sentencing date (he had previously repaid a portion of the $87-94,000 he bilked). Though he apologized for defrauding his customers of tens of thousands of dollars, Commonwealth's Attorney Rick Bartley reported to Pike Circuit Court Judge Steve Combs that no restitution had been paid, and the judge ordered Justice to jail for 30 months. (Kentucky.gov press release, Lexington Herald-Leader, WSAZ)
Yup...30 months...two and a half years. The folks Justice bilked had been responsibly putting back their money for longer than that! Hell, he was bilking people for longer than that! He could have faced 20 years in prison and been fined $10,000 on each count...there's a reason the law allows for such a sentence! If prison overcrowding is such a daunting issue that thieving creeps preying on senior citizens get a punishment of two and a half years, then we've got some serious laws to start hacking! Most potheads and a lot of other druggies serving time weren't HARMING anybody, were they? Let this jackass take their spot!
