Funeral Home Owners Charged With Theft: Cops

MOORESTOWN, NJ — Three people have been charged with stealing more than $1.3 million from McChesney Funeral Home in Moorestown over an eight-year period, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina and Moorestown Township Police Chief Lee R. Lieber announced on Monday. They had been hired to run the business, and stand accused of diverting the money into their personal bank accounts.

Raymond Zale, 60, and 58-year-old Ronald Zale, both of Stratford, as well as 32-year-old Sean Zale, of the Sicklerville section of Gloucester Township were each charged on Friday with two counts of second-degree theft by deception.

Ronald and Sean Zale were processed and released on Friday by the Moorestown Township Police Department. Raymond Zale was unable to be processed at that time due to a medical condition. The case will next be presented to a Burlington County Grand Jury to be considered for indictment.

The investigation began after McChesney Funeral Home went out of business in 2016. This happened after brothers Raymond and Ronald Zale neglected to file documents with the State Board of Mortuary Science of New Jersey to renew the McChesney license, police said. This caused it to lapse, leading to the closure.

Raymond and Ronald Zale were responsible for running the funeral home in an arrangement that dates back to the 1980s, according to authorities. Raymond Zale’s son, Sean, assisted with various tasks, such as driving.

From 2008 to 2016, nearly $2.35 million in payments for services that should have gone to the McChesney Funeral Home were diverted into accounts controlled by the three Zales, authorities said.

At the same time, they made payments of just over $1 million from their accounts to McChesney Funeral Home in order to keep the business running. The Zales held onto $1,315,894.77 that should have gone to the McChesney Funeral Home. During the same period, the funeral home paid the Zales $775,518 for their services and expenses.

Police also allege that Raymond Zale deposited money prepaid by two customers to McChesney for funerals into his business and personal accounts. New Jersey regulations governing the operation of funeral homes require that funds paid for this purpose must be deposited into an interest-bearing trust account on behalf of the customer.

In addition to Middleton Strobel, the Zale Family also owns and operates Eugene Zale Funeral Home in Stratford and Eichel Funeral Home in Pennsauken.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Andrew McDonnell, supervisor of the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office’s Financial Crimes Unit. The investigation was conducted by detectives from the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and Moorestown Township Police Department. The lead investigators are BCPO Det. Wayne J. Comegno and Moorestown Township Police Det. Donald Brauckmann.

The attached images of Sean Zale, Ronald Zale and Raymond Zale were provided by the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office