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The funeral scandal time line
A chronology of the battle between the Texas Funeral Service Commission and Service Corporation International.
Compiled by Robert Bryce
[08/20/99]

Feingold's new gimmick
In his never-ending quest for campaign finance reform, Russ Feingold has been calling out monied special interests before important Senate votes.
By Jake Tapper
[08/19/99]

There's no place like home
Three Albanian-Americans who fought for the KLA struggle to find their place after the war.
By Elsa Davidson
[08/19/99]

Contempt charges sought against Bush
Did the Republican front-runner lie in his sworn affidavit? It all depends on what the meaning of a conversation is.
By Robert Bryce
[08/18/99]

The great Arkansas railway mystery
Twelve years ago, two teenagers were murdered on a rural railroad track. Right-wing conspiracy theorists who blamed then-Gov. Bill Clinton for the killings have now lost a $600,000 libel suit in the case.
By Suzi Parker
[08/18/99]

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"Formaldegate" -- named for the funeral-home industry at the scandal's center -- is an intriguing tale of death threats, leaky dead bodies and political cronyism. At its center is a self-styled whistle-blower who says Bush blasted her out of state government when her commission got too close to a Bush family buddy, the largest owner of funeral homes in the world. But is it a real story, or simply a political vendetta launched by a Texas Democrat to derail Bush's White House hopes?

Also Today The funeral scandal time line A chronology of the battle between the Texas Funeral Service Commission and Security Corporation International

The answer lies with the central figure in the scandal, Eliza May, a 45-year-old Austin Democrat who claims she was fired from her job as executive director of the Texas Funeral Service Commission for blowing the whistle one of Gov. Bush's friends and political donors.

When May came to the TFSC in 1996, the agency was in shambles. Five months before May started work, her predecessor at the commission, Wayne Butterfield, was arrested on charges of aggravated perjury and witness tampering. The executive director before him left after being hit with charges of sexual harassment. State inspectors were hammering the agency. In 1990, the state's sunset commission recommended that the TFSC be abolished because it was taking "minimal and ineffective" action to resolve consumer complaints. In August 1995, just 11 months before May accepted the executive director's job, the state auditor's office uncovered a hearse-load of problems including lax licensing, shoddy inspections and poor internal operations.

May knew there would be hassles when she applied for the job. After years of working for the state, she was used to them But May never would have guessed that her stint as executive director of the Texas Funeral Service Commission would last just 31 months, that her life would be threatened on the job or that she would end up in the center of a growing controversy involving the man favored to be the next president of the United States.

In March, May filed suit against the state of Texas. It alleges Gov. Bush and other state officials tried to thwart her agency's investigation into Houston-based Service Corporation International. May also sued SCI and the company's CEO, Robert Waltrip.

Just as Paula Jones' lawsuit caused big problems for President Clinton, so could May's lawsuit pose problems for Bush. Like Clinton, who fought Jones' efforts to get his deposition, Bush is fighting a subpoena issued by May's attorneys.

But there are some key differences between Jones' case against Clinton and May's suit against the state. First and foremost, Bush is not a defendant in May's lawsuit. Secondly, Jones sued Clinton for his personal conduct. May's suit against the state is seeking Bush's testimony about his actions as governor and whether he or his employees did anything to hamper or halt the TFSC's investigation into SCI.

On Wednesday, May's lawyers raised the stakes, asking a Travis County court to find Bush in contempt for not telling the truth about his interactions with SCI officials in a sworn affidavit. Like Jones, May is being hit with allegations that her motivations for pursuing the whistle-blower suit and the deposition of Bush are political. In an Aug. 5 motion to quash the subpoena of Bush, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn argued that the deposition was being "sought purely for purposes of harassment."

On Wednesday, Bush made the same charge. During a press conference in Austin, he referred to May's lawsuit as "frivolous" 12 times. "This is a frivolous lawsuit; this is politics," he said.

Next page | Government watchdog or partisan Democrat?