UPDATE BELOW
Now this should make many people angry, I know I’m mighty pissed off. A mayor of a small Colorado town, and the director of the town’s funeral home, was sent the savings of a dead Marine by accident. He refused to give this money back to his family even after the courts have ordered him to:
The mother of a U.S. Marine was grieving for her dead son when she found that his savings account had been claimed by the director of the funeral home.
It was money that he had no right to and despite a court ruling, the funeral director refused to pay. What’s even more puzzling is that he’s not just any debtor, he’s the mayor of the small town and a member of a City Council that has financial responsibility for the city’s budget.
7NEWS also found that he has other debts as well, something his constituents may want to know.
Jason Sepulveda, a Marine, was training at Camp Lejune in North Carolina, preparing to go to Iraq, when in an evening off-base, he was killed in a car accident.
[…]Jason’s body was returned to Colorado for burial. Records show that the funeral was paid, in full, by the Marines. But after closing out her son’s accounts, Jason’s mother realized that the probate court had sent the proceeds of Jason’s savings account to the funeral home, which is run by Jim Bostick.
“I called Mr. Bostick and I said, ‘Well, the courts sent you my son’s savings account.’ He just kind of really blew me off a lot,” Sepulveda said.
She said he didn’t give her any receipts or bills and just kept the money.
In addition to his duties as mayor and member of the Ft. Lupton City Council, Bostick also owns two funeral homes. In his role with the city, he is heavily involved in overseeing the finances of the town.
Sepulveda took Bostick to court over the money he wouldn’t return to her family. The judge’s order in the case was final.
“She gave damages, interests, court fines, everything, and I assumed that if you go to court that you pay it,” Sepulveda said.
But despite the judgment of more than $7,500, Bostick has refused to pay.
$7,500 bucks may not sound like much to some people but what I think this comes down to is the pure arrogance of this Mayor to keep money that belongs to the family of this Marine, money he knows does not belong to him.
Someone who serves this country, and dies for this country deserves more.
Please write to this sack, keep it civil of course, but write/call/email and voice your displeasure with how he is treating the family of someone who served this country faithfully:
Bostick Funeral Home
806 Denver Ave
Colorado 80621
Phone: (303) 857-2290
LuptonCouncil@aol.com
Fort Lupton Chamber of Commerce
321 Denver Ave
Fort Lupton, CO 80621
(303) 857-4474
flchamber@frii.com
UPDATE
A commentor, Yiddish Steel, called the Mayor and this is his report:
I called Bostick and he claims that the amount of money owed to Mrs. Sepulveda on behalf of her son, Jason is only $94.00. He says that this story is false and that no one from the media will come and talk to him to get his side of the story. Then he tries to justify himself by saying that Jason wasn?t a war hero because he never made it to Iraq and died here on American soil in a non-combat-related fatality. Now get this? He starts laying into Jason?s twin brother for allegedly going A.W.O.L. from the Marine Corps. I quickly shut him down on that by telling him that this is about Jason, a deceased Marine and his estate. This Jim Bostick sounded like a guy with an IQ hovering around 70 when I spoke with him. I think he?s lying and he?s going to get people calling him that are going to be a lot less civil than I was.
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I just tried calling Mayor Jim Bostick at the funeral parlor he owns. He “wasn’t available at the moment and should be back in half an hour or so”
It is proper eqiquette (sp?) to greet someone with the highest title they’ve attained. For Mayor Jim Bostick, it should be Thief Jim Bostick.
I should think this township would want to call an emergency meeting and reconsider having its citizens’ interests so much as exposed to this phoney. This man’s behaviour and response to questioning indicate he has no conscience, no accountability, no empathy, no scruples, no remorse, no intention of repaying anyone for what he expects to lay claim to and devour for his own gluttony. Dispicable. What a coward.
May 3 2006 – This story just appeared on CNN. That mayor looks like he just stepped off the set of Dukes of Hazard! I just called the Bostick Funeral Home in Fort Lupton and left a message for him to give the money back…
Can Mrs. Sepulveda take him back to court and have him held in contempt for not obeying the Judge’s order? Seems to me that if Mr. Bostick were to spend a bit of time in one of the County’s finest facilities [and NOT one in Ft. Lupton City], he might just be more inclined to return the money to Jason’s Mom. I don’t know about Colorado law, but typically courts have a monetary limit as to where actions can be filed, i.e., in North Carolina if the amount is under $2,000.00 the action has to be filed in Small Claims Court, but over $2,000. it is filed in Superior Court, thus giving the county jurisdiction and not the City of Durham. This is an action Mrs. Sepulveda could undertake on her own, sparing herself any additional cost for an attorney.
Awesome job Yiddish. Funny how he cries that no one in the media would come talk to him but in the above video we see him run away from a reporter. Pathetic.
Curt,
I called Bostick and he claims that the amount of money owed to Mrs. Sepulveda on behalf of her son, Jason is only $94.00. He says that this story is false and that no one from the media will come and talk to him to get his side of the story. Then he tries to justify himself by saying that Jason wasn’t a war hero because he never made it to Iraq and died here on American soil in a non-combat-related fatality. Now get this… He starts laying into Jason’s twin brother for allegedly going A.W.O.L. from the Marine Corps. I quickly shut him down on that by telling him that this is about Jason, a deceased Marine and his estate. This Jim Bostick sounded like a guy with an IQ hovering around 70 when I spoke with him. I think he’s lying and he’s going to get people calling him that are going to be a lot less civil than I was.
Think they will ever bring back tar and feathering and running folks out of town on a rail? I think this bozo is a good candidate to be first in line!