Former Uniontown funeral director sentenced to prison for scamming elderly clients

Feb. 25--A former Uniontown funeral director who pleaded guilty to stealing from more than 80 elderly clients on Tuesday was sentenced to four to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $555,000 in restitution.

Authorities said Stephen E. Kezmarsky III, 52, the former owner and operator of the Kezmarsky Funeral Home, took prepaid funeral payments from elderly clients from 2005 through 2017, but never forwarded the payments or his client's completed polices to the insurance company.

Kezmarsky's South Pennsylvania Avenue funeral home closed in April 2017 after a bankruptcy filing. In January of the following year, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower announced they were charging Kezmarsky with bilking 51 clients. An additional 31 clients later came forward saying they, too, fell victim to Kezmarsky.

The former funeral director pleaded guilty last fall to 166 counts of theft by deception, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, forgery and insurance fraud.

Fayette County Common Pleas Court Judge Steven Leskinen sentenced Kezmarsky Tuesday, ending more than two years of legal proceedings.

Shapiro and Bower said justice was served by the sentence.

"Anyone who defrauds Pennsylvanians, especially vulnerable people planning for the end of their lives, will be held to account for their crimes. For 12 years, Kezmarsky deceived dozens of Pennsylvanians who believed they were making final plans, and now he will spend a long time behind bars and repay what he stole," Shapiro said.

Deb Erdley is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Deb at 724-850-1209, derdley@tribweb.com or via Twitter .

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