The family of a man misidentified by Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators as dead filed a $2 million claim — a precursor to a lawsuit — Monday against the county.
Francis J. Kerrigan, 81, of Wildomar and Carole Meikelof, 56, of Silverado were mistakenly told May 6 that their son and brother, respectively, had been found dead. Frank M. Kerrigan, a 57-year-old transient, was very much alive, however, and showed up at a family friend’s home after his funeral.
Riverside County sheriff’s deputies called the elder Kerrigan on May 6 and told him to contact the coroner’s office in Orange County about his son, according to the claim. When he was told by Orange County authorities that his son had died, he says he asked if he had to identify the body, but was told it was unnecessary since the identification was made through fingerprints. He says he was also told he could claim the body after an autopsy.
He and Meikelof went to the Verizon store in Fountain Valley where the body was found and “erected a small shrine in his memory,” according to their claim.
A funeral Mass at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange was “attended by approximately 50 people, including family and friends who came from Las Vegas, Washington State, Ontario, San Diego and Santa Barbara,” and the body was buried at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery near the younger Kerrigan’s mother, according to the family’s attorney, Matt Easton.
Frank Kerrigan was close to his mother and his mental health issues took a turn for the worse after her death, Easton said. The episodes of homelessness increased about that time, he said.
Orange County sheriff’s investigators now know who was buried in the cemetery, but have not released the name because they are still trying to notify the man’s family, sheriff’s Lt. Lane Lagaret said. The body will remain there until the man’s family is contacted and they decide how they want to proceed, he said.
The elder Kerrigan and his daughter are both seeking $1 million, plus the $20,768 the family spent on the funeral and burial.
The family assumed Frank Kerrigan was dead until May 23, when his father “received a telephone call from a family friend who had attended the funeral (saying) that claimant’s deceased son had just shown up for a visit,” according to the claim. “Stunned, claimant realized that the son that he had recently buried was alive, and that the coroner’s office had misidentified someone else’s body as that of his son.”
The family’s attorneys notified authorities of the mistake on June 1, Easton said.
“On June 2 they called back, saying they had re-run the fingerprints they had already run the first time, according to them, and got no hit, and that now they knew who the person was and gave us a name at that time,” Easton said. “Given all of the screw-ups along the way, I’m not overwhelmingly confident they got it right the second time around.”
Kerrigan’s loved ones are “happy he’s alive, of course — that’s the silver lining here,” Easton said. “But the really sad part was that (cemetery plot) was a sacred place for that family. They carefully chose that spot to put him as close to her and that statue of Jesus he always really liked.”
Ftank Kerrigan’s family has told him about the funeral and outpouring of support, Easton said.
“They seem to have had a little bit of an impact in helping him connect a little more frequently lately,” the attorney said.
It’s unclear how authorities got Kerrigan’s name in the first place, Easton said. But the identification was made by using a DMV driver’s license photo from 11 years ago, he said.
“There’s a lot of steps they could have taken” to prevent the mistake, Easton said. “They could have asked (family members) to come down immediately and identify the body.”
Sheriff’s officials said they are conducting an internal review of identification procedures in light of the mistake.
— City News Service