CLEARFIELD – A former Reynoldsville man accused of not delivering grave markers to his clients pleaded guilty to theft Tuesday during plea and sentencing court.
Edmund A. Grenier Jr., 71, an inmate of state prison, pleaded guilty to felony counts of theft by deception in three cases.
He was sentenced to 42 months to seven years in state prison on each case by Judge Paul Cherry. The sentences will run concurrent with each other and with his current sentence.
In a fourth case, he pleaded guilty to theft by deception as a misdemeanor of the first degree. For this, he was given a concurrent term of 30 months to five years in state prison.
He was ordered to pay more than $109,000 in restitution.
Prior to sentencing, Grenier apologized to victims saying he was sorry this happened, but adding that he didn’t know what he could have done differently.
Cherry commented that Grenier violated the trust he had with his clients and as a result, some of their loved ones are without the monuments or markers their family members intended for them.
Over the past few years, Grenier has been charged several different times in both Clearfield County for Crown Crest Cemetery and in Jefferson County for Lakelawn Memorial Park for his failure to deliver items, such as grave site markers, granite bases, bronze memorial plaques, bronze vases and bronze scrolls to be installed in the cemeteries, according to published reports.
In January of 2015, he pleaded guilty in Clearfield County on two, separate cases to felony counts of deceptive business practice, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds and theft by deception. Prior to that on Aug. 27, 2013, he pleaded guilty to deceptive business practices.
He pleaded guilty to two cases with the same charges in Jefferson County.
Grenier is currently serving a state prison sentence of 25 to 50 years from a probation violation in Jefferson County that he was given in September of 2015.
According to online court records, in July of 2015, Jefferson County Judge John Foradora ordered that all accounts in the name of Lakelawn Memorial Park or Crown Crest Memorial Park be closed and reopened by attorney Jeffrey M. Gordon. The cemeteries were to be sold to pay the debts of the business.
Grenier’s ex-wife, Brenda Grenier, 58, is charged with 30 counts each of deceptive or fraudulent business practices, theft by deception and theft by failure to make required disposition of funds and two counts of theft by unlawful taking in one case and with one count each of deceptive business practices, theft by deception and theft by failure to make required disposition of funds in two other cases.
Brenda Grenier was identified as the secretary and treasurer of Grenier Enterprises Inc. as well as Crown Crest Cemeteries. In June of 2014, she withdrew $7,577.55 from the business account.
She admitted she took the funds because Edmund Grenier had stopped paying her a regular salary from the business. Brenda Grenier has not been associated with the day-to-day operation or maintenance of the business since 2011, according to the criminal complaint.
A bench warrant was issued for her after she failed to appear for a preliminary hearing in August of 2015. She was taken into custody in March and was extradited from Virginia.
She remains incarcerated in the Clearfield County Jail in lieu of a total of $75,000 bail. A motion to reduce her bail in October was denied by Cherry, according to a previous report.
