Lawsuit: Ex-Tennessee funeral director continued to exploit grieving immigrant families
The exterior of Saddler Funeral Home in Lebanon, one of two funeral homes at which Reid Van Ness was storing bodies he had promised to send to other countries. (Photo: John Partipilo)
A Tennessee funeral director surrendered his license in 2020 after multiple complaints alleging he took money from immigrant families then failed to ship the remains of loved ones overseas for burial.
Now, new legal filings in an ongoing federal lawsuit show the state's Department of Commerce and Insurance has received a 'litany of complaints' against Reid Van Ness for failing to deliver on promised funeral services to Spanish-speaking residents of Tennessee and Kentucky in the years after losing his license.
Van Ness, the subject of a 2021 Tennessee Lookout investigation, was among a small number of Spanish-speaking funeral directors in Tennessee who offered services to families seeking to ship bodies for burial overseas.
A Tennessee funeral director made promises to immigrant families; he didn't deliver
The Lookout investigation found that Van Ness had instead left multiple bodies to decay in coolers in Middle Tennessee funeral homes for periods that ranged between two to 11 months while family members frantically pressed him for information about their loved ones' whereabouts.
He falsified shipping documents, stopped answering families' calls and left some families waiting for months to bury family members, state records showed. Among the grieving and distraught families were the parents of an 18-month old infant who died in a Nashville hospital and the mother of a 17-year-old boy who died by suicide.
At least five families filed suit against Van Ness and four funeral homes that agreed to store bodies for him. A state consumer alert issued in 2021 urged residents to report Van Ness to law enforcement after complaints he was approaching Spanish-speaking residents in Rutherford County to offer funeral services.
Murfreesboro mortuary settles suit in corpse 'abuse' case
Van Ness is now fighting the state in federal court to be able to continue to provide volunteer funeral service, arguing he has a First Amendment right to serve as a 'community death care advocate.'
Van Ness claimed the state's Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers is illegally trying to restrict his freedom of religion by prohibiting him from participating in funeral services. He says he serves as a volunteer – a claim that is contrary to the complaints the board says it has received that Van Ness has accepted payment for his services.
Van Ness 'is part of a growing national movement rethinking the practices, customs, and approaches surrounding death,' the lawsuit said.
'Mr. Van Ness shares his knowledge about end-of-life options with families to help them put their own end-of-life plan in place that is best for them and their loved ones. By engaging in these difficult but important conversation(s), he can give families the practical, emotional, and nontechnical support that funeral directors do not typically provide,' the lawsuit said.
Lawsuits pile up against former funeral director
An attorney representing Van Ness could not be reached for comment about the lawsuit. A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, which oversees the state's funeral board, declined to comment on ongoing litigation.
In their legal response, the Department of Commerce and Insurance noted it had received complaints about Van Ness accepting payments for bungled funeral services between 2021 and 2023 after he had surrendered his license.
In 2022, the state funeral board warned Van Ness he could not speak to consumers seeking funeral services, medical examiners, or undertake any actions relating to providing funeral, embalming or securing grave plots in Tennessee.
But throughout 2022 and 2023 the state's funeral board 'obtained evidence of various instances of Van Ness: accepting payment to arrange, manage, and perform funeral directing services; requesting to embalm and prepare loved ones of the deceased…and holding himself out as a licensed funeral director under another individual's name.'
The lawsuit is scheduled for trial in June 2026.
Reid Van Ness
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump escalates vendetta against Harvard with fresh bid to ban foreign students
President Donald Trump issued an order on Wednesday barring international students from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard University citing 'national security' concerns. The move is an escalation in the president's ongoing feud with Harvard and other universities. In addition to barring incoming students, Trump also has given Secretary of State Marco Rubio the go-ahead to start revoking the visas of foreign students who are studying at the college. Trump claims that Harvard refused to give his administration information about "known illegal activity" on its campus allegedly committed by international students. The Trump administration previously signaled that it would try to prevent Harvard from enrolling international students, but a federal judge issued an injunction to stop the White House from interfering in the college's enrollment practices. It appears that the president is trying to interfere with Harvard's foreign student enrolment by other means. 'Admission to the United States to study at an 'elite' American university is a privilege, not a right,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X. 'This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the President's proclamation suspending the entry of new foreign students at Harvard University based on national security.' Harvard issued a response to the Trump administration's order. 'This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the administration in violation of Harvard's First Amendment rights,' university spokesperson Jason Newton said in a statement. 'Harvard will continue to protect its international students.' The Trump White House demanded that Harvard overhaul its admission and disciplinary policies in April or face losing its funding. He has also accused the college of antisemitism over its handling of pro-Palestinian student protests. Harvard — unlike other universities, like Columbia — refused to bend to the president's pressure. In response, the White House blocked more than $2 billion in federal funding from the university. Since then, Trump has been on a mission to force Harvard to comply with his orders. In early May, he threatened to cancel Harvard's tax exempt status, and later considered giving $3 billion in the university's grants to trade schools. Lawrence Summers, a President Emeritus at Harvard and former Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton, called Trump's move "punitive extortion." "President @realDonaldTrump's latest salvo against @Harvard clearly represents punitive extortion rather than any seriously thought through policy to promote national security. I hope and trust that the judiciary will again restrain the President in the name of lawful government and the Constitution," Summers wrote on X. While he said that "Harvard should make a variety of changes" to its policies, he insisted that "extortion is the wrong way to bring them about and will ultimately prove to be counterproductive in terms of our national security as we alienate allies, threaten our scientific cutting edge and undermine the major contribution universities make to the national economy."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump moves to deny visas to Harvard's international students
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will deny visas for foreign students trying to come to the United States to attend Harvard University, his latest attack on the prominent Ivy League college. The administration tried late last month to revoke Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students — a move that was swiftly blocked by a federal judge. In a proclamation Wednesday, Trump said Harvard failed to present sufficient information about its foreign students to the federal government. 'Harvard provided data on misconduct by only three students, and the data it provided was so deficient that the DHS could not evaluate whether it should take further actions,' Trump said, referring to the Department of Homeland Security. Harvard said it would fight to protect its international students. "This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard's First Amendment rights," a spokesperson for the university said Wednesday night. Trump made his pledge as he announced what amounts to a travel ban for 12 countries and limitations on nine others. The proclamation said the president would 'restrict the entry of foreign nationals who seek to enter the United States solely or principally to participate in a course of study at Harvard University or in an exchange visitor program hosted by Harvard University.' It added that the State Department would review existing foreign students under F, M or J visas to see whether their visas should be revoked. Trump and his administration have attacked Harvard, saying it has not done enough to combat antisemitism on campus during demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war. Harvard in April rejected Trump administration demands that included auditing viewpoints of the student body. In response, the federal government said it was freezing more than $2 billion in federal grants. The administration previously sought to limit Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students by revoking its certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, Harvard said. The government also sought to prohibit Harvard from issuing F and J visas. Harvard President Alan M. Garber responded in a letter on May 23 that Harvard was being retaliated against for refusing to surrender to the Trump administration's illegal attempts to control it and its students. "We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action," Farber said. "It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams." This article was originally published on
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump suspends visas for new Harvard international students
June 4 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered a suspension of international visas for new students seeking to attend Harvard University, accusing the school of failing to report "known illegal activity" carried out by its students. In a proclamation, Trump said the suspension applies only to new nonimmigrant students who travel to the United States solely or primarily to attend the Massachusetts university. International students are allowed to enter the country to attend U.S. schools under the Student Exchange Visa Program. Trump also gave Secretary of State Marco Rubio the authority to determine whether existing Harvard students in the country on visas should have theirs revoked. Citing an increase in crime on the campus -- which was also reported by The Harvard Crimson in 2023 -- Trump said Harvard has failed in disciplinary actions. He said the school reported misconduct by three foreign students and provided "deficient" data on those incidents. "Harvard's actions show that it either is not fully reporting its disciplinary records for foreign students or is not seriously policing its foreign students," Trump said. The proclamation is the Trump administration's latest of multiple attempts to block the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students. He has taken issue with students' anti-Israel protests over the war in Gaza. A spokesperson for the university told NBC News it planned to fight the administration's order. "This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the administration in violation of Harvard's First Amendment rights," the spokesperson said. In May, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs blocked the Trump administration's attempt to deny Harvard to admit international students. At the time Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem canceled the school's SEVP certification. "The administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus," Noem said.
