From WRIL -
A former Bell County Coroner and Funeral Home director accused of 38 counts of violating the Kentucky trust provision of pre-need payment for funeral goods and a count of theft was set for his first day of a jury trial in a Franklin County courtroom on Wednesday, September 28th.
However, a Franklin County Circuit Judge has ordered 74-year-old Donald Clyde Creech of Middlesboro to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial.
As we reported on April 28th, the former owner of Creech Funeral Home in Middlesboro is accused of taking funds from individuals that were to be placed in trust and then sent to the trust manager at the Funeral Directors Association of Kentucky in Franklin County. The monies range from $3,750 to as much as $9,000 for a total of $248,925, which is alleged to have been taken from 1996 to roughly January of 2014.
There is also one count of theft by failure to make required disposition of property over $500 in regard to $5515 obtained from an individual for a legal obligation in which Creech falsely dealt with the property as his own and failed to make the required payment even though two other parties had purchased the funeral home.
Creech held the office of Bell County Coroner from 1981 to 2011.
He has retained Attorney T. Scott Abell to represent him.