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HARTFORD, Conn. — (Gambling911.com) - A former Connecticut funeral director has agreed to plea guilty after using families’ prepaid funeral money to bankroll lavish casino trips.
Phillip Pietras, 51, accepted the terms Friday, Sept. 18, in Rockville Superior Court before Judge Christopher Griffin. His formal guilty plea is scheduled for Oct. 23, with sentencing set for Jan. 22. The deal calls for a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence. He was expected to receive a 15-year sentence but half of that has been suspended.
"As for myself, and I'm sure all the others affected, this is not nearly enough for the amount of pain and anguish he has caused so many families," Alison Greene, whose mother, sister and aunt are victims, said outside the courtroom.
Pietras owned Burke-Fortin Funeral Home in Vernon. He also faces charges in Coventry, East Windsor and Tolland. He is accused of taking largely prepaid money for future funerals, not money paid for bodies already in his custody awaiting cremation.
At least 170 victims were set to testify against Pietras.
Clients’ deposits into a Pietras Funeral Homes account ranged from $100 to tens of thousands of dollars, according to the warrant, according to investigators in Vernon who began their probe in April of last year.
A Coventry warrant lists 22 victims and losses totaling more than $165,000. In East Windsor, a warrant identifies $81,300 missing from client accounts. Individual amounts there ranged from $4,500 to $15,700.
News of the arrest traveled slowly. As people learned about it and checked the escrow accounts in which Pietras was supposed to have deposited their funeral funds, they learned their money also was gone and called police.
The warrant specifically names two Connecticut casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, as well as MGM Springfield in Massachusetts. Casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City are also named.
Police records indicate that Pietras lost $1.2 million at the Mohegan Sun during a period that ranged from 2010 through 2024.
The Burke-Fortin Funeral Home is now listed as permanently closed. The Victorian mansion he owned in Rockville that housed the funeral home is currently for sale.
Reviews of his funeral home and services were mostly scathing.
"They don't even deserve a star. But had to select one star inorder to post this review. This is worst funeral home. They allowed my father's so called son to collect him from the ME office and creamated him before checking if there was a probate case in court. They did all this and notified no one on the probate case. To me they stole our father's body and creamated him wrongfully. After two different funeral homes denied thier transfer and collection. We are very angry and hurt and beyond yourselves.. we didn't even get to say goodbye to him. They wouldn't give us any info about OUR FATHER."
"I wanted to rent a casket but they said they didn’t rent them, they wanted to charge me over $2K to purchase a casket and when I asked what happens to the casket when my husband gets cremated, they said the casket gets cremated with him. I would have had to purchase 3 urns to carry the ashes!!! Just made no sense to me at all, I left disgusted that now I have to start all over again and I’m too exhausted but no choice! Went to Carmon in Vernon was like day and night, they took good care of me which is what I needed. They went above and beyond and would use them again if needed to."
While it is true that caskets do get cremated with the corpse, a funeral home cannot require the family to purchase a conventional casket. Under the federal FTC Funeral Rule, it must offer an alternative cremation container.
- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com
