Ex-coroner faces felony misconduct charges

Former longtime Ozaukee County Coroner Timothy Deppisch was charged last week with two felony counts of misconduct in public office in a criminal complaint that accuses him of claiming mileage reimbursement for trips to funeral homes he never made and issuing cremation permits without physically viewing the bodies in 2022.

Three funeral directors interviewed by Lt. Michael Buechler of the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office said instead of viewing bodies in person, Deppisch instructed them to send him photos of the corpses, then issued cremation permits based on those pictures, an allegation Deppisch denied when interviewed by a detective in 2024, according to the complaint filed in Ozaukee County Circuit Court.

Wisconsin law requires a coroner or medical examiner to make “a careful personal inquiry into the cause and manner of death” if a corpse is to be cremated.

Deppisch, 73, of Mequon served as Ozaukee County chief deputy coroner for 25 years before being elected coroner in 2015 and serving through 2022. His decision not to run for re-election prompted the county to move from an elected coroner to an appointed medical examiner, and it was the county’s first medical examiner who in February 2023 noticed irregularities in the travel expense vouchers submitted by Deppisch.  

It was well known and confirmed by funeral directors interviewed by Buechler that it was Deppisch’s practice not to travel outside Ozaukee County to view bodies for the purpose of issuing cremation permits.

Instead, funeral directors said, Deppisch required them to drive the bodies to him for viewing, often at the Ozaukee County Justice Center in Port Washington but also at other locations that included his house, a funeral home in Thiensville near his house and Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital-Ozaukee in Mequon, the complaint states.

Yet in December 2022 alone, he filed claims and was reimbursed for nearly $500 worth of travel to 14 funeral homes outside of Ozaukee County. 

Funeral directors said he never made those trips, according to the complaint.

Among Deppisch’s mileage reimbursement claims was one for 34 miles for a Dec. 14, 2022, trip to and from Haase-Lockwood Funeral Homes & Crematory, which has locations in Twin Lakes, Elkhorn and Genoa City.

The funeral home owner told Buechler that he needed a cremation permit for a person who died at Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital-Ozaukee in Mequon on Dec. 12, 2022, and called the coroner. He said he spoke with a man named Tim, who instructed him to send a photo of the body via text. He did so and received the cremation permit via fax, according to the complaint.

The funeral home owner said Deppisch did not travel to any of his funeral homes to view that body, the complaint states.

Deppisch also submitted claims and was reimbursed for four trips totaling 122 miles in December 2022 to Myrhum-Patten Funeral Home & Cremation Services, which has locations in West Bend, Kewaskum, Lomira and Mayville.

The funeral home owner told Buechler that Deppisch did not come to any of his funeral homes in December, adding that Deppisch never left Ozaukee County for viewings and the common practice was to bring the bodies to him at the Justice Center, according to the complaint.

The director of Feerick Funeral Home in Shorewood told investigators that Deppisch had never been to the funeral home even though Deppisch claimed 20 miles of travel for a Dec. 14, 2022, trip to and from the mortuary, the complaint states.

The director said that most of the time the funeral home took bodies to the Justice Center, although it had also taken corpses to Deppisch’s home and met him at Schramka Funeral Home in Thiensville for viewings.

Deppisch also submitted claims and was reimbursed for a total of 53 miles for two trips to Schmidt Funeral Home, which has locations in West Bend and Jackson, on Dec. 19 and Dec. 30, 2022. 

But the owner of the funeral home told Buechler that Deppisch had never been to either of his locations and, in fact, Schmidt Funeral Home had no record of handling death cases on either of the dates Deppisch claimed he traveled there, the complaint states.

Investigators also reviewed Deppisch’s mileage claims for January through November 2022 and identified nine additional out-of-county funeral homes he most frequently claimed he traveled to. Directors or managers of seven of those funeral homes said Deppisch had never been to their mortuaries, according to the complaint.

Authorities focused on one reimbursement request submitted by Deppisch for a 16-mile trip from his home to Piasecki Funeral Home & Cremation Services in Kenosha on Sept. 14, 2022.

The co-owner of Piasecki Funeral Home told Buechler that the mortuary was handling arrangements for a person who died at Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital-Ozaukee in Mequon but could not immediately reach Deppisch to issue a cremation permit, so it took the corpse back to the Kenosha funeral home.

The next day, the co-owner said, Deppisch directed the funeral home to take a photo of the corpse from head to waist and text it to him along with the notice of removal and the name and birth date of the deceased, the complaint states.

The co-owner did not believe a photograph of the body was an appropriate form of viewing for the purposes of issuing a cremation permit and suggested the Kenosha County Medical Examiner conduct a courtesy viewing, but Deppisch declined, according to the complaint. 

Ultimately, the funeral home sent Deppisch the photo and information he requested and he faxed back the permit. 

Deppisch also requested mileage reimbursement for an Oct. 14 trip to Piasecki Funeral Home, but the co-owner said there are no records of him visiting the mortuary on that date, the complaint states.

Under Wisconsin law, a body may not be cremated unless a coroner or medical examiner issues a cremation permit. That permit must include a statement that the coroner or medical examiner has viewed the corpse and “made personal inquiry into the cause and manner of death ... and is of the opinion that no further examination or judicial inquiry is necessary,” although the law does not specify how the body is to be viewed. Some Wisconsin counties specifically require physical viewings.

Buechler requested all of Deppisch’s expense vouchers from the Ozaukee County Finance Department and received those that were retained, which were from 2017 to 2022. The records showed that the average monthly mileage Deppisch was reimbursed for ranged from a low of $880 in 2022 to a high of $1,290 in 2020. In that year, he was reimbursed a total of $15,485 for travel, and during the six-year period he was reimbursed a total of $76,920 for mileage, according to the complaint.

During a June 14, 2024, interview with Sheboygan County Detective Misty Nelson, Deppisch said that while he typically traveled to Ozaukee County funeral homes to view bodies, he rarely went to funeral homes outside the county.

He admitted that he did not always travel to the locations he listed on his mileage reimbursement vouchers, the complaint states.

But, he said, he always viewed corpses in person and denied ever issuing a cremation permit without physically viewing the body, according to the complaint. 

Deppisch said he only used his personal vehicle to travel to viewings even though there were county-owned vehicles available to him. He said he only used county vehicles to transport bodies.

Deppisch is scheduled to make his initial court appearance before Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Sandy Williams on April 14.