Merrimack Valley

Funeral director charged with fraud in bills for Lawrence boy's rites

By Mark E. Vogler
Staff Writer
Published: June 22, 2008

LAWRENCE — When her 11-year-old son Dario Rodriguez died after being struck by a car while crossing Route 114 last October, Viviana Resto had him buried in a pauper's grave at Bellevue Cemetery for $1,500 because she couldn't afford a traditional funeral.

Three days later, Resto said she received a bill totaling $11,751 from funeral director Manolito "Manny" Diaz, a partner in the Diaz-Healey Funeral Home on South Broadway. She said the statement of goods and services contained her forged signature for expenses she never agreed to pay — including $3,980 for a headstone that was never installed.

Resto said Diaz continued to visit her home, demanding payment after learning the insurance company of the driver whose car hit her son had sent her an $8,000 check.

On Friday, after months of investigation by the city's auto insurance fraud task force, Diaz, 28, of Lawrence received a summons to appear in court this week to face charges of auto insurance fraud, attempted larceny over $250 and forgery.

Diaz's attempts to collect money from Resto are also the subject of an investigation by the state Division of Professional Licensure, which could result in disciplinary action, including the loss of his funeral director's license.

"This is a case of somebody trying to cash in on a terrible tragedy," said Lawrence police Chief John Romero, who assembled the fraud task force in the fall of 2003 after a 65-year-old Lawrence great-grandmother died in a staged car crash that police said she helped plan to scam insurance companies.

Romero said his department and the auto fraud task force determined that Diaz gave statements that were not consistent with what Resto and a friend of hers said.

"While inconsistencies in and of themselves do not always rise to the level of criminal infraction, in the course of our investigation it was determined that Mr. Diaz had prepared false documents and made false statements in an effort to inflate the value of the services provided to the family," he said.

Diaz confirmed that he received a summons ordering him to appear Friday in Lawrence District Court. He offered no immediate comment on the specific allegations against him and would not identify the lawyer who will represent him at his arraignment.

"The Rodriguez family has suffered, and I hope this issue can be solved quickly for them," he said. "It's a very serious allegation, and the Rodriguez's are in the middle of the whole thing. ... We are very saddened this is something added to the grief of Ms. (Resto). Hopefully, they can move on and honor the life of this boy.

"I think Friday will be a very important day. I am very saddened by this. Funeral directors are called when there is a need in the family. Funeral directors aren't (supposed to be) called to court," he said.

The case against Diaz brings to 317 the number of people charged with auto insurance fraud in the city's 41/2-year crackdown. The task force consists of a handful of Lawrence police detectives working with investigators from the insurance industry-funded Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts. The task force also works closely with the district attorney's office, the attorney general's office and investigators for insurance companies that do business in Lawrence.

"This is a unique case of all the ones the task force has investigated because it doesn't involve staged car crashes or phony auto theft claims," said Lawrence police Detective Sgt. Michael Simard, the department's lead investigator on the task force. "But it still involves trying to scam an insurance company out of money on an accident. When he (Diaz) found out there was some possible insurance money, he created a bogus invoice after the child had been buried.

"The emotional trauma that this mother went through throughout this whole ordeal is just unbelievable — between her son getting hit by a car, having to pull a plug on him, and the lawyer waiting at her house when she comes home from the hospital to prey on her, and then being hit with a phony bill with her forged signature on it was too much."

So much so that last month — after weeks of agonizing over whether to pay the $11,751 for her son's funeral — Resto had Dario's body exhumed and sent to Puerto Rico to be buried with family.

"She was so distraught over the whole ordeal, she wanted to get her son away from this madness so he could rest in peace and so she could have peace of mind," Simard said.

Meanwhile, Diaz said he questions the fairness of the investigation against him, since the attorney representing Resto is also the owner of a funeral home serving Lawrence's Hispanic community.

Farrah Funeral Home owner Louis Farrah, who is also an attorney, was the one who contacted Lawrence police last December. He said he suspected that his client may have been the victim of a criminal act.

"Lou Farrah's my biggest competitor in the funeral profession," Diaz said. "It's interesting they sought his counsel — the competing funeral director within the Hispanic community. I've only been open two years, and I've built a good reputation."

After members of the auto fraud task force met with Resto, the Insurance Fraud Bureau requested the case file from Safety Insurance, the company that insured the driver who hit her son.

IFB investigator Debra Ushkevich, who worked with Simard and Lawrence police Detective Ryan Guthrie on the case, determined there was merit to recommend to the district attorney that fraud charges be filed against Diaz.

"It is clear that there is no headstone at Bellevue Cemetery marking the burial location of Dario Rodriguez," Ushkevich wrote in one of her reports summarizing the case. "There could never be a headstone placed in the Public Grounds/Welfare section of this cemetery — which Manny Diaz knew — yet this item was billed to Safety Insurance.

"This new billing statement was created and the headstone was added to the backdated billing statement only after Manny Diaz believed that there was more money available from Safety Insurance for Dario's services. Manny Diaz also admits to signing Viviana Resto's name to the larger billing statement," Ushkevich concluded.