Featured photo: Eric HaKeem Deontaye Mays, the son of the late Flint City Councilman Eric B. Mays. Photo provided by Lento Law Group.
By Tanya Terry
Eric HaKeem Deontaye Mays, the son of the late Flint City Councilman Eric B. Mays, filed a lawsuit recently in the 7th Judicial Circuit Court for Genesee County alleging violations of Michigan law, fraud and conspiracy by the Lawrence E. Moon Funeral Home and four siblings of the late councilman in connection with the handling of his remains.
38-year-old Eric HaKeem Deontaye Mays explained to the Courier why filing a lawsuit against other family members and Moon Funeral Home regarding the remains of his father was so important to him.
“It’s important to me because, first off, they’re trying to ruin my dad’s legacy,” said Eric HaKeem Deontaye Mays. “They have him places where he doesn’t want to be. They’re trying to slander my father’s name. They’re having people speak on my father that he has a lot of problems with. But, at the end of the day, I’m just trying to protect my father’s legacy and find a proper resting place where he belongs.”
Eric HaKeem Deontaye Mays said his relationship with his dad was “everything,” having lost his mom when he was 21.
“He kept me laughing,” Eric HaKeem Deontaye Mays. “I was just staying with him a few years ago before I moved back to Grand Rapids. We talked every day. He loved the grandkids. They talked to him every day. We had a good relationship. There was nothing bad about it.”
According to Eric HaKeem Deontaye Mays, his father did not want to have his funeral at Lawrence E. Moon Funeral Home, where the family had planned a funeral for March 9.
“It’s been something I’ve known for years,” Mays’ son stated.
The lawsuit alleges that:
- Two of the late Councilman’s siblings, Sherman Mays and Veronica Simon, perpetuated a fraud on the Genesee County Medical Examiner’s Office by falsely representing to one of its investigators that the late councilman had no children;
- A third sibling, Reggie Mays, who works as a funeral home attendant for the Lawrence E. Moon Funeral Home, perpetuated a separate fraud on the Genesee County Medical Examiner’s Office by falsely representing to its Administrator that he had legal authority as the late councilman’s brother to authorize the release of his body to the funeral home;
- The Lawrence E. Moon Funeral Home has refused to turn over the late Councilman’s remains to his son in violation of Michigan law despite Mr. Mays providing the funeral home with the legally required documentation necessary to authorize the funeral home to do so.
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Attorney Joseph Cannizzo, Jr.
Joseph Cannizzo is an attorney with Lento Law Group, the law firm that had been representing Councilman Mays in several of his lawsuits and now is representing his son. Cannizzo stated a representative from LARA (Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs) let him know they were considering action against Moon’s license over this matter. He said Eric HaKeem Deontaye Mays’ current choice as to where his father’s funeral will take place is Paradise Funeral Chapel in Saginaw.
Councilman Mays’ oldest brother, Sherman Mays, told the Courier the family had no relatives either living or dead in Saginaw. He described the desire to hold his brother’s funeral in Saginaw as “bizarre.” The Lento Law Group confirmed Eric HaKeem Deontaye Mays lives in Grand Rapids.
“Our whole family has went through the Moon Funeral Home,” stated Sherman Mays.
Sherman Mays, who shared a home with Councilman Mays since he won his council seat over a decade ago, said he and his brother were as close as any other brothers were.
Sherman Mays described walking in to see his brother dead in the home.
“It was shocking to see him,” he said. “He was just laying and not moving. I called his name. He didn’t respond. I went over to him. He didn’t respond. I called 911. They arrived, and then I started calling other family members. It was nothing I had experienced before. It was shocking, and saddening, and confusing all at the same time.”
Sherman Mays told the Courier the question of whether Councilman Mays had a son did not arise in his conversations with Amanda Rhoades of the Genesee County Medical Examiner’s Office, despite what the lawsuit alleges.
Cannizzo stated his office has a sworn affidavit from the investigator who conducted that line of questioning.
Rhoades could not be reached immediately for her comments.
Sherman Mays expressed a concern that some of the cases the Lento Law Group’s founder, Joseph D. Lento, has been involved in had been previously been called into question by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
Sherman Mays told the Courier he and his siblings had no interest in Councilman Mays’ business through which he sold T-shirts and caps with the words “point of order” on them, which many people remember the councilman saying.
“We’re determined to have a service,” said Sherman Mays. “We’re not interested in the something else. They can have the something else. My financial well being was not dependent on what Eric was doing. Neither was his on what I was doing.”
In addition, Sherman Mays said because of the family’s strong faith in God and the fact they grew up in church, he and his siblings are “sleeping well.”
