News 12 First at Five, January 29, 2008

AUGUSTA, Ga -- Death and taxes, two things we're told to be sure of in life. Now Dent's Undertaking Establishment finds itself in hot water over both.

Owner Frank Griffin is already being investigated by the Georgia State Board of Funeral Service. Now, he has a lot on the line in bankruptcy court.

If you plan on doing business with Dent's, it may mean a lot. That's a lesson the Gowdy family whose story started our investigation almost four months ago is still learning.

It's a bankruptcy that could put Frank Griffin and Dent's Undertaking Establishment out of business. A case Georgia's Attorney General is also watching. A case the Gowdy family wish they had known about before it was too late.

"If we had known about the bankruptcy, we definitely would not have taken my grandfather there." Kahnisa Allen is talking about what happened to her grandfather Joshua Gowdy. At his viewing at Dent's back in October, the family found 74-year-old Gowdy in a casket bleeding out of his ears and nose, his body bloated beyond recognition and his remains rotting from the inside out.

Yvonne Gowdy is still in disbelief about what happened to her father. "How could y'all sleep at night knowing how y'all did him?"

"We still haven't seen any type of money," says Allen. "That's not what we're after, but they promised that."

But the Georgia Department of Revenue is after Griffin's money, almost 200 thousand dollars worth. Charles Willey with the GDOR tells News 12 Griffin is being investigated not only for keeping individual taxes, but trust taxes that include withholding taxes and sales and use taxes. If it's true Griffin kept trust taxes from the state, that would be a crime.

He's fighting as many as 25 creditors to keep his home and his business down to the limos and the caskets. According to his Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing, he's in debt more than $441,000.

"They should never have been allowed to open back up." Allen's referring to Dent's being shut down last July by the Department of Revenue. Griffin's bankruptcy filing in August helped them to reopen, but attorneys with the bankruptcy case say it's nearing an end, one that doesn't look good for Frank Griffin.

"He's a crook," says Gowdy. Her niece Allen agrees. "Dent's should be shut down. There is no point of risking money or loved ones to go through this."

And believe it or not, while Joshua Gowdy has legally been dead for almost four months, technically he's not with courts because his death certificate hasn't been filed. That's holding the family up from getting social security and life insurance benefits. Under the law, death certificates are supposed to be filed within 10 days.

Richmond County Coroner Grover Tuten tells News 12 that Griffin came to him a few months ago with an incomplete Death Certificate for Joshua Gowdy. "The death certificate submitted to this office was incomplete and signatures that were required from the funeral director and the embalmer was not present," says Tuten. "Therefore, being an incomplete death certificate, I refused to sign it until the signatures of the funeral director and the embalmer are also on the death certificate."

We called Griffin's attorney Evita Paschal and she had no comment.

Monday the bankruptcy case was continued in federal court. When it's picked back up, the federal court has a few options and an attorney with the case says of the two most likely to happen, both include shutting Dent's down and liquidating all of Griffin's assets.

UPDATE -- News 12 learned on Friday, January 30, 2009 that Judge Susan D. Barrett has converted Frank Griffin's Chapter 13 bankruptcy case to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case.

The court has appointed a bankruptcy trustee to the case to determine which of Griffin's assets will be liquidated.

Then, the money raised in the sale of those assets will be divided up amongst the creditors in this case.

Trustee A. Stephenson Wallace, the bankruptcy trustee appointed, says it is possible that Griffin may lose his business, Dent's Undertaking Establishment, as well as his home.

The next court hearing in the case is February 25, 2009. News 12 will let you know what is decided in that hearing.