Kentucky Funeral Director Fined $580,000 for Performing Hundreds of Illegal Cremations

A former funeral director and mayoral candidate associated with three funeral homes in Indiana and Kentucky has been fined $580,000 by the Office of the Kentucky Attorney General for performing nearly 300 cremations without a license.

Anthony Oxendine is the owner of Spring Valley Funeral Home in Louisville, Kentucky and Cloverport Funeral Home in Cloverport, Kentucky. Until recently, he also owned Spring Valley Funeral Home in New Albany, Indiana.

Failure to register

The illegal cremation charges, which were announced on September 13, were the result of an investigation of Cloverport Funeral Home. The attorney general’s office opened the case on January 2 after receiving information “revealing that the facility had failed to register to operate a crematory and was providing cremation services without a license in violation of Kentucky law.” 

The inquiry found that the funeral home had performed 290 cremations since April 2023 while not licensed to do so. A temporary restraining order was issued in January to prohibit the funeral home from conducting cremations; there were no restrictions against performing other services, however. 

Closure questions

Although several reports indicate that the funeral home has been closed since the January order was issued, it appears from the location’s website that the funeral home continued offering traditional funeral and burial services throughout the investigation, with the last obituary posted on July 17, 2024.

In filing the January restraining order motion, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman stated that Cloverport Funeral Home had made “unfair, false, misleading, and deceptive” representations by advertising cremation services on the company’s website although the facility was not licensed to perform them.

In June, the Kentucky Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors called a special board meeting to “discuss and/or take action related to renewal or nonrenewal of Anthony Oxendine’s Funeral Director and Embalmers License,” as well as the operating licenses of Spring Valley Funeral Home in Louisville and Cloverport Funeral Home. 

The minutes of the June 28, 2024 board meeting cited the reason for the discussion of Oxendine’s license was due to “allegations that were not responded to and now deemed admitted.” The motion “to non-renew” the Spring Valley license application was due to “failure to pay fees for inspection,” while the same motion for the Cloverport location was due to “allegations that were not responded to and now deemed admitted after service was made of the complaints.” All three motions passed with a vote of 5-0 in favor of non-renewal.

Trouble in three cities

Oxendine’s Kentucky locations are not the only operations linked to him that are under scrutiny for wrongdoing. On August 15, the license for Spring Valley Funeral Home in New Albany, Indiana was suspended by the Indiana State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Service for 90 days for “numerous dangerous conditions” that presented “a clear and immediate danger to public health.”

According to reports, state compliance officers visited the funeral home on June 28, later filing a report citing a variety of infractions, including a “strong smell of decomposition” and large medical waste containers in the embalming room, along with flies and blood and other fluids. A person who had died 11 days earlier and was still not embalmed was also found, as were the cremated remains of 15 people who had died before 2024.

The report added that former owner Anthony Oxendine, who was not licensed as a funeral director in Indiana at the time, was still living above the funeral home and had access to the facility. However, Oxendine told a reporter in August that he no longer lived there and “knows nothing about the investigation.”

Mayoral run

Oxendine’s name has appeared in headlines over the past several years for a variety of reasons that are not related to these charges. In 2020, he announced a run for the office of coroner of Floyd County, Indiana, saying he hoped to “restore dignity and respect to the office of coroner.” He was not elected.

In October 2021, Oxendine announced that he would be running for the office of mayor in Louisville in 2022. He cited his main reason for running as his concern for the city’s rising rate of gun violence.

In March 2022, the candidate came under fire for falsely claiming he had been endorsed by Tamika Palmer, the mother of 2020 police shooting victim Breonna Taylor. Palmer’s attorneys said the “so-called ‘endorsement’” video, which is still posted to Oxendine’s mayoral campaign Facebook page, was “misleading.” Although Palmer entrusted Taylor’s funeral to Oxendine and participated in the video to vouch for his services, her attorney said the respect she had for him was not equal to an endorsement.

Oxendine was one of seven Democratic candidates who were eliminated from the race during the primary. The party’s nominee, Craig Greenberg, was ultimately elected to the position.

From humble beginnings

Later in 2022, Oxendine was recognized for providing funeral services for gun violence victims at no charge or with no up-front payment required. One article detailed several instances where Oxendine had gone above and beyond to assist families who had been traumatized by gun violence, from delivering groceries to facilitating Disney-themed entertainment for a young victim’s birthday party. He also started a program where he paid homeless individuals to provide lawn maintenance services at cemeteries and for the elderly, in addition to taking these individuals to dinner.

In the article, Oxendine explained that he grew up in poverty, and was even homeless himself for a while after college. He said he began developing a close relationship with his mentor, a local funeral director, at age five, and learned not only about the profession but also how to help others in their time of need.

Pending actions

There will, no doubt, be more Oxendine-related headlines coming soon, as his funeral homes are still the subjects of ongoing investigations by the Kentucky attorney general’s office and his name has been mentioned for his connection to another funeral that is the subject of a civil suit.

The family of a man who died in December 2023 filed suit against J.B. Ratterman & Sons in Louisville on August 2, alleging that the funeral home lost their loved one’s cremated remains and presented the family with a “box of dirt.” The suit states that unbeknownst to the family, Ratterman & Sons sent the man’s body to an “unlicensed and unauthorized crematorium in Cloverport, Kentucky” for cremation. That crematorium is Oxendine’s Cloverport Funeral Home.