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    <h3 class="title"><a name="#top"></a>Kevin Mercadante (Mercadante Funeral 
      Home & Chapel) Plays Pivotal Role in Conspiracy? Surprised He Wasn't Called 
      as a Prosecution Witness? Is He and His Funeral Home the Beneficiary of 
      Families and Business that had previously been served by me during this 
      charade? <br>
      <br>
      YOU BE THE JUDGE! <br>
    </h3>
    <h4 class="titlesmall">ALSO: Actual testimony from defense witnesses<br>
      UPDATE: August 18, 2006<br>
    </h4>
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    <p>Kevin Mercadante tells State Investigator, John Bresnahan, that I enticed 
      families to transfer their pre-need funeral arrangements from Nordgren Memorial 
      Chapel to his funeral home. Without taking a statement from Mr. Mercadante, 
      without contacting the families referenced, and without any type of verification 
      and substantiation of the allegations, the State Board and Division of Professional 
      Licensure issued an Order to Show Cause to me. Mr. Mercadante, just like 
      Mrs. Mangsen, drew conclusions without the facts, did not contact the referenced 
      families prior to making his erroneous assumptions and conclusions, and 
      as a result has disrupted the lives of families that have experienced one 
      of the most grievous pains one can experience &#8211; &#8220;the loss of 
      a loved one&#8221;!</p>
    <p>As a result of the lies, distortions, and actions of Mrs. Mangsen and Mr. 
      Mercadante (and yes, Mr. Kazlauskas &#8211; already judged by the Good Lord, 
      I suspect), I have been forced to spend in excess of $400,000 and almost 
      3 years of my life fending off allegations, accusations, and vicious lies 
      as I finally have been given the opportunity to present the facts and call 
      witnesses to testify to the truth. The truth and facts are now readily available, 
      will be known to all, and restitution for ones statements and actions will 
      soon be the topic of adjudication in the appropriate venue.</p>
    <p>For the purposes of this Update, I shall focus on complaint EM-04-126 filed 
      by Nordgren Memorial Chapel, Worcester, MA in the person of <strong>Katherine 
      Mangsen</strong>, Treasurer, Nordgren Memorial Chapel and the direct involvement 
      and testimony of <strong>Kevin L. Mercadante</strong>, owner, Mercadante 
      Funeral Home and Chapel, also in Worcester, MA. I shall present information 
      and testimony by both of the aforementioned parties to the complaint along 
      with testimony and the direct involvement of the investigator for the State 
      Board, John Bresnahan &#8211; after which you will be in a position to judge 
      the intent of Ms. Mangsen and Mr. Mercadante. </p>
    <p>I shall also provide direct testimony from the two witnesses alluded to 
      in the complaint filed by Mrs. Mangsen, and to which Mr. Mercadante supposedly 
      attested to and supported during discussions with Mr. Bresnahan. Then and 
      ONLY then will you get a true sense for the conspiracy, the corruption, 
      and subsequent attempts to cover-up that which all parties referenced above 
      know to be the facts and the truth.</p>
    <p>In an attempt to justify terminating we without notice on November 19, 
      2003 from my long standing association at Nordgren Memorial Chapel; even 
      though I was and still am an owner of Nordgren Memorial Chapel, Katherine 
      Mangsen filed the following complaint with the Division of Professional 
      Licensure on December 24, 2003 (<em>Note the date &#8211; Christmas Eve</em>):</p>
    <div class="insert"> 
      <p><strong>&#8220;I am filing this complaint against Philip G. Haddad, Jr. 
        for enticing people to move their pre-paid funerals to another funeral 
        home. Attached please see 2 examples of him contacting these people (his 
        signature as notary public proves this). Mr. Haddad was terminated on 
        November 19, 2003. He has worked here since 1994. He is attempting to 
        take what he perceives as &#8216;his business&#8217; with him. He is contacting 
        the people with whom he met while employed here at Nordgren and convincing 
        them to leave. I believe this to be unprofessional, unethical, and illegal. 
        Please respond. Thank you.&#8221;</strong></p>
      <p><strong> Katherine E. Mangsen 12-24-03</strong></p>
    </div>
	<p>(<em>Attached as exhibits are letters from Edward N. Haddad, Jr. and Janet 
      C. Forzley addressed to Nordgren Memorial Chapel</em>)</p>
    <div class="insert">
	  <p>It is required that you have the <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html" target="_blank">Adobe 
        Reader</a> installed on your computer to view the following email message.</p>
      <p> <strong>*</strong> Letter dated December 17, 2003 to Nordgren Memorial 
        Chapel from Janet C. Forzley <a href="/documents/Dec-17-2003">[Dec-17-2006.pdf]</a></p>
      <p><strong>*</strong> Letter dated December 17, 2003 to Nordgren Memorial 
        Chapel from Edward N. Haddad <a href="/documents/Dec-18-2003">[Dec-18-2006.pdf]</a></p>
	</div>
    <p>You will note that I notarized both letters attesting to the signatures 
      being authentic and that the statements made and signed by both Mr. Haddad 
      and Mrs. Forzley were done so of their own free will and accord!</p>
    <p>Without consultation with me or the referenced families to verify the accuracy 
      of the complaint filed by Mrs. Mangsen, John Bresnahan, investigator for 
      the State Board and Division of Professional Licensure, forwarded the complaint 
      to me for a response.</p>
    <p>I responded within the ten (10) day timeframe with the following:</p>
    <div class="insert">
	  <p>It is required that you have the <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html" target="_blank">Adobe 
        Reader</a> installed on your computer to view the following email message.</p>
      <p> <strong>*</strong> Letter dated February 5, 2004 to John Bresnahan from 
        Philip G. Haddad <br>
        <a href="/documents/Feb-05-2004">[Feb-05-2004.pdf]</a></p>
	</div>
    <p>(Please note &#8211; my detailed response to the allegations in the complaint 
      that reference Freeda Haddad, mother of Edward Haddad; and T. Catherine 
      Rizkalla, mother of Janet Forzley.)</p>
    <p>Upon receipt of my response to the complaint (supposedly reviewing my response, 
      and seeing to it that both families had opted to transfer their pre-need 
      funeral arrangements from Nordgren Memorial Chapel to Mercadante Funeral 
      Home and Chapel, and considering Mr. Bresnahan&#8217;s incomplete and ill-advised 
      investigation), the State Board of Registration of Funeral Directors and 
      Embalmers issued to me an Order to Show Cause dated June 29, 2004. There 
      are two (2) statements in the Order to Show Cause that relate directly to 
      Mr. Mercadante. For the purposes of this update, I shall present one statement 
      and the second statement in the Order to Show cause shall be addressed in 
      Part 2., scheduled to appear in the August 28, 2006 Update.</p>
	  
    <div class="insert"> 
      <p><strong><em>&#8220;In or about November and December 2003, while you 
        were not affiliated with any funeral home, you solicited customers of 
        Nordgren Chapel to transfer their pre-need contracts to other funeral 
        homes.&#8221;</em></strong></p>
      </div>
    <p>The investigator, Mr. Bresnahan, under oath testified that it was his understanding 
      after speaking with Mr. Mercadante that I had actually gone and spoken to 
      people who I refer as my families and offered to take them to another funeral 
      home. The two families referenced were &#8220;Freeda Haddad, by her son, 
      Edward N. Haddad, Jr.&#8221; and &#8220;T. Catherine Rizkalla, by her daughter, 
      Janet Forzley.&#8221; Did Mr. Bresnahan verify this information by contacting 
      the families referenced? NO! He did not. In his testimony, he states, &#8220;I 
      only went to the successor funeral home/director (in this case, Mr. Mercadante) 
      and that is what he told me&#8221;.</p>
    <p>Mr. Mercadante, under oath and a witness I called to testify because the 
      prosecution did not, said something entirely different <em><strong>&#8220;It 
      appeared to me that Mr. Haddad had encouraged the Rizkalla Family to transfer 
      their pre-need funeral contract to my funeral home, because I have a letter 
      that states he (Haddad) had met with the family&#8221;</strong></em>. Quite 
      A difference from what Mr. Bresnahan heard from Mr. Mercadante during his 
      investigation!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
    <p>Mrs. Forzley, daughter of T. Catherine Rizkalla, had testified moments 
      earlier that her mother asked me to come to her home and the decision to 
      transfer the pre-need funeral arrangement was her mother&#8217;s decision 
      and her decision and that I had no input into the decision.</p>
    <p>My response had previously been provided to these allegations in the February 
      5, 2004 letter to Mr. Bresnahan presented earlier in this update.</p>
    <p>The testimony from both Edward N. Haddad, Jr. and Mrs. Janet Rizkalla, 
      both under oath, indicating that they both knew me personally for most of 
      their lives and that they knew me long before I ever joined Nordgren Memorial 
      Chapel and that statements that I enticed them to transfer their family 
      pre-need funeral arrangements to Mercadante Funeral Home were false and 
      that there was not a word of truth to the statements disproves the assertions 
      made by Mr. Bresnahan in his investigation and the assertions in the Order 
      to Show Cause issued by Ms. Kathy Cartmell-Siricco, Chairperson of the State 
      Board in June 2004. But equally important and under oath, Mr. Mercadante 
      stated, <strong><em>&#8220;It appeared to him that I enticed the Rizkalla 
      family to transfer their pre-need funeral arrangements to his funeral home, 
      but the Haddad family was another issue&#8221;</em></strong>. Neither Mr. 
      Bresnahan nor Mr. Mercadante verified the facts before they drew their false 
      conclusions. </p>
    <p>Did Mr. Mercadante and his funeral home stand to benefit from my NOT being 
      able to practice as a funeral director? Was this the motive behind his inaccurate 
      and unsubstantiated statements made to Mr. Bresnahan? You be the judge! 
      I shall soon, in a subsequent update, list the families that have patronized 
      Mercadante Funeral Home, ONLY because I was not available to service them 
      since the actions that evolved since November 19, 2003.</p>
    <p><strong>Next Update &#8211; August 28, 2006</strong></p>
    <p><strong>Part 2.</strong></p>
    <p><strong><em>Subject: &#8220;Kevin Mercadante (Mercadante Funeral Home &amp; 
      Chapel) Plays Pivotal Role in Conspiracy? Surprised He Wasn&#8217;t Called 
      as a Prosecution Witness? Is He and His Funeral Home the Beneficiary of 
      Families and Business that had previously been served by me during this 
      charade? YOU BE THE JUDGE!&#8221;</em></strong><br>
    </p>
    
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