Scandal Around Damaged Body Was Primary Topic At Long Valley Man's Funeral, Lawsuit Says

The lawsuit (attached) was filed by the Fornaro family in Bergen County Superior Court on Thursday, Sept. 5. The suit names the Cochran Funeral Home in Hackettstown along with three of its employees; Bergen Funeral Service along with three of its employees; 10 John Does; and 10 ABC entities.

The Cochran Funeral Home declined to comment while Bergen Funeral Service did not return to Daily Voice's phone calls and emails placed Monday, Sept. 9.

The suit alleges that Carmine Fornaro, 89, of Long Valley, died on April 13, 2023 due to multiple organ failure at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack. Shortly after he died, Carmine's son, Rex Fornaro, contacted the Cochran Funeral Home (Cochran) and arranged for his father's remains to be picked up from the hospital that morning, and transported to the funeral home for the funeral service and burial.

Rex met with Matt Furman, a driver for Bergen Funeral Service around 4 a.m. on April 13, 2023, as BFS had been contracted by Cochran to transport the body from the hospital to the funeral home, the lawsuit alleges. The two agreed to reconvene at Cochran, about 90 minutes away from the hospital. Furman loaded Carmine’s remains into his vehicle and left the hospital around 5 a.m., the suit says. When Rex arrived at Cochran, neither Furman nor Carmine's body where there, and the funeral home was closed and empty, according to the lawsuit.

"Terrified that his father’s remains had been lost or cremated, or that the Defendant Furman had been involved in an accident, Rex attempted to call Cochran (having no contact information for Bergen), but he could not reach anyone there until after 9 AM, all Plaintiffs were left to agonize for hours over the Carmine’s missing remains," the lawsuit reads.

"When Rex finally reached someone at Cochran, he was informed for the first time that his father’s remains were with Bergen Funeral Service in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, and that Cochran was going to pick them up from there."

Rex requested to accompany the driver from Cochran to pick up his father's body, but was told that the driver had already left, the suit says. When Rex returned to Cochran, he was finally allowed to see his father's body at 11 a.m., nearly 10 hours after his passing, according to the lawsuit.

When Rex saw his father’s body, he was horrified to discover that it had sustained visible damage, including a large, round abrasion or laceration approximately two inches in diameter on the top of his father’s head, "as though the body had been dropped or abused," the lawsuit reads.

No one from Cochran nor Bergen Funeral Service had informed Rex of the damage to the body before he saw it, the lawsuit says, "so it was especially shocking for him to discover the condition of his father’s remains without any forewarning."

Christine Dupont, a director at Cochran, told Rex she didn't know what happened when Rex pointed out the damage, according to the suit. She did, however, say that damage like that "happens all the time," the lawsuit says.

James "Chip" Cochran, who works for the funeral home, initially suggested the injury had been caused by the zipper of the body bag containing Rex's father's remains, further calling the damage "a scratch," the lawsuit says. then, he said that the damage was not an injury, but was a "skin slip"

Rex took photos of the damage to his father's body before returning to Cochran later that day to finalize the arrangements for his father's service and embalming in a written contract, according to the lawsuit.

"When Plaintiff Rex called Cochran the next morning, he was informed that Cochran would not be providing the agreed-upon funeral service or embalming," the suit states. "Chip later on explained to Rex that he did not want to handle Carmine’s funeral or embalming in part because photographs were taken of the damage to Carmine’s remains."

The Fornaro family was forced to make urgent efforts to find a new funeral home to handle Carmine's service, and eventually contracted with a different home, according to the lawsuit.

"Unfortunately, the damage to Carmine’s head was too severe to be repaired or concealed, so at the open-casket funeral, the injury was clearly evident," the lawsuit states. "The scandal surrounding Carmine’s injury was the primary topic of discussion at the funeral, disrupting Plaintiffs’ final goodbyes to their patriarch and overshadowing what was meant to be a celebration of Carmine’s life."

The suit says the Fornaro family suffered financial damages and severe and ongoing emotional distress "as the direct, proximate, and foreseeable result of Defendants’ actions as complained of herein, and require ongoing medical treatment for their symptoms."

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