BUTTE — A lawsuit that was filed earlier this year against Butte-Silver Bow County in relation to the mishandling of a 32-year-old Butte man’s body who passed suddenly last summer will now include a deputy county coroner and a Butte funeral home.
According to an amended complaint filed on April 3, the lawsuit now includes deputy coroner Joseph Shagina and Wayrynen-Richards Funeral Home, as well as Lori Durkin, the Butte-Silver Bow County Coroner.
In addition to new defendants named in the case, a change of venue has been granted, moving the case from Missoula County to Butte-Silver Bow County.
Durkin was placed on administrative leave in February pending an investigation into the handling of Caleb's body. Original filing documents allege Durkin initially reported to the Boelman family that a “smorgasbord” of drugs was found in his body. However, she later told the family that no illegal drugs were found in his system.
Other disturbing allegations claim that the coroner’s office did not immediately refrigerate Boelman’s body, resulting in rapid decomposition and grotesque disfigurement of the body.
In the amended complaint, the document says the county coroner told plaintiffs that because the organs were moderately decomposed, the body was not able to be examined properly; therefore, the medical examiner could not determine a cause of death.
The document also says that the "grotesque nature of the remains, due to excessive decomposition and degradation caused plaintiffs severe emotional distress" after they signed a waiver to view Caleb's body at a Missoula funeral home.
The family also says several family members chose not to view Caleb's body per the recommendation of the funeral home and "the fact that those plaintiffs lost their only opportunity for a viewing of the body, due to excessive decomposition and degradation, caused those plaintiffs severe emotional distress."
According to the complaint, an alternative argument is put forth that "if Deputy County Coroner Joseph Shagina was acting exclusively within the course and scope of his employment as an employee of Wayrynen-Richards Funeral Home and not acting in any capacity as a deputy coroner, when he allowed Caleb's body to decompose by leaving it in a sealed body bag, without placing the body in a cooler," both Shagina and Wayrynen-Richards "knew or should have known that such unnecessary decomposition was likely to harm and cause emotional distress in the next of kin."
The Boelman family is seeking unspecified damages against the county and Wayrynen-Richards Funeral Home.
In February, county commissioners voted unanimously to instate Dan Hollis, who previously held the coroner position in the 90s, as the interim county coroner.
