Temperance man gets maximum sentence for abusing corpse

8/7/2012

A former funeral home employee who was convicted of sexually abusing a corpse was sentenced today in Lucas County Common Pleas Court to one year in prison.

Lawrence J. Clement, 57, was sentenced to the maximum term for behind bars after pleading no contest last month to abuse of a corpse. He was taken immediately into custody.

Saying the crime was “as about as bad as it can get,” Judge Stacy Cook explained that the maximum sentence was the result of Clement abusing his position of trust and because he caused physical harm to the victim.

“This was sickening and appalling and will make everyone in this community think twice about putting their family members in the care of a funeral home,” the judge said. “…You are a grown man who made a disgusting choice.”

Clement, of Temperance, was arrested in March and accused of treating the corpse of Brenda Shular-Cameron, who died of multiple organ failure at age 51, “in a way that would outrage reasonable community sensibilities,” authorities said.

Clement was found in a compromising position with the corpse at H.H. Birkenkamp Funeral Home, where he worked part time, and he admitted to having sexual contact with the body. Authorities previously said he had “sexual contact by means of touching the erogenous zones” of the victim.