CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office has asked a circuit judge to put a tombstone salesman behind bars for alleged violations of a previous court order.
Morrisey’s office filed a contempt petition March 30 in Logan Circuit Court against T&N Monuments and owner Tommy Kenneda alleging a violation of terms of a September 2016 court order by ignoring its ban on future monument sales and refusing to identify five consumers for whom he owed completed work.
“Grieving families should not have to worry about being taken advantage of," Morrisey said. "Court orders are binding and must be enforced.”
The prior settlement and court order required Kenneda to wind down his existing business, complete five pending jobs and never again operate such a business in West Virginia. The AG’s office said it is unknown if the pending jobs have been completed.
Instead, the petition alleges Kenneda sold two headstones to a Logan County woman as recently as March 2017, seven months after the court order, and failed to complete two other jobs for consumers in Logan and Wyoming counties dating back as far as April 2015.
The new petition seeks up to six months in jail and for Kenneda to reimburse the aggrieved consumers, immediately identify those with monument jobs pending as of September 2016 and cease further monument business activity.
Kenneda settled the original case in 2016, admitting to having violated state law and paid $9,253.50 restitution and a $2,500 civil penalty, all within two months of the initial filing of the lawsuit. As part of the September 2016 agreed order, Kenneda did not dispute that he failed to deliver as promised and owed money to 12 consumers.
Logan Circuit Court case number: 16-C-152
