Michigan man barred from open casket funerals in sentencing for casket theft
File photo (Flickr / wickenden)
FLINT, Mich. (AP) - A community advocate from Michigan has been ordered not to attend open casket funerals as part of a plea deal reached in a theft case.
The Flint Journal reports that 76-year-old Art Wenzlaff was sentenced Monday in Genesee Circuit Court to one day in jail and five years' probation.
Wenzlaff was accused of taking a Detroit Pistons hat, a watch and two bowling rings from a casket during a funeral service in Mundy Township.
He pleaded no contest in August while facing charges of larceny in a building and disrupting a funeral or memorial service.
As part of his sentence, he also was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine to the Humane Society as requested by the victims.
Wenzlaff is the former administrator for the International Academy of Flint.
Investigators found maggots, unrefrigerated bodies at this Flint funeral home