PURCELL — Local residents who prepaid for their funerals at the Yoakum-Damet funeral home came to a public meeting Friday hosted by the Oklahoma Insurance Department.
Almost 30 people showed up to relay their financial transactions with the funeral home to the insurance commissioner’s representatives.
Inspectors with the insurance department seized the financial records of Charles Michael Damet and his funeral home last week after he was arrested on drug-related charges.
The McClain County Sheriff’s Department had been watching the funeral home for about a year and concluded it was being used as a front for selling drugs.
Although the funeral home’s license to sell prepaid funeral trusts had been revoked in 2004, it was still accepting money for trusts, said Darren Ellingson, lawyer for the insurance department, at a funeral board meeting Wednesday.
The department is collecting information to build a case against the funeral home and its owner, said Marc Young, spokesperson for Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland.
The department needs people to come forward with claims, he said.
One man who came to the meeting Friday said he bought a prepaid burial policy in the 1960s.
C.M. Hederick said both his parents and his wife were buried by Yoakum Funeral Home in 1959, 1960 and 1983, before Damet took over.
Hederick said he does not expect to get his money back.
“I kind of wrote it off a long time ago,” he said.
It is too early to know how many people were affected, Young said, but the department hopes to turn over all its information to the district attorney’s office in a few weeks.
“What we’re hopeful for, is that those who did have funds, that the money would still be there,” he said.
Julianna Parker366-3550jparker@normantranscript.com
Local news
State insurance department hosts meeting to answer questions about funeral home
- Local news
-
-
Theater’s the scene for Norman marketing director
Nancy Coggins landed a job with a prestigious Oklahoma City advertising agency before the ink dried on her OU journalism diploma. The job was a first rung on her career ladder and she admits that it didn’t call for her creative talents. ...
-
New jail to install curtains
The F. DeWayne Beggs Detention Center, though still in its infancy, is getting a facelift: new curtains....
-
Businesses go the extra mile for Valentine’s Day
Among the various images the phrase “Valentine’s Day” might conjure in one’s mind, probably the most immediate is the iconic dozen roses and heart-shaped box of chocolates....
-
New rehabilitation, skilled care center will be next to HealthPlex
StoneGate Senior Living President and CEO John F. Taylor announced Friday that his company has completed the purchase of approximately 6.7 acres of land in the Norman Regional Health System’s Medical Park West project at NW 36th Avenueand ...
-
Mystery performance provides theatrical fatal attraction
James Briggs has a pretty steady day job with the city parks department, doesn’t live anywhere near Little River and probably never owned or slept in a hatchback. He doesn’t usually wear sport coats that are two sizes too small, either ...
-
'Get the Lead Out' annual children's art festival enters 10th year
Longfellow Middle School had a special “GLO” about it Saturday morning....
-
County prisoners moved to new jail
Cleveland County sheriff’s deputies began moving prisoners from the detention center adjacent to the courthouse to the new F. DeWayne Beggs Detention Center at Franklin Road and U.S. 77 early Saturday morning....
-
School board elections Tuesday
Voters go to the polls Tuesday in four Cleveland County school districts. Cleveland County Election Board Secretary Jim Williams said this will be the first election using the new voting system. Polls will open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on ...
-
Identity theft crackdown sweeps nation
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department recently announced a national sweep cracking down on suspected identity theft perpetrators as part of a stepped-up effort against refund fraud and identity theft....
-
Darry Stacy seeking county commission seat
Darry Stacy, a fifth generation Oklahoman and lifelong resident of Cleveland County, announced Friday that he will be a Republican candidate for the District 2 Cleveland County commissioner seat....
- More Local news Headlines
-
Theater’s the scene for Norman marketing director
