D.C. Family, Court at Odds Over Woman's Funeral Costs

For almost a month, the embalmed body of Toni Brown has lain in a District funeral home, dressed in a white shirt and a blue linen suit her mother bought for her.

Morticians at Austin Royster Funeral Home in Northwest Washington said it was unclear how much longer they could keep Brown's body before it starts to decompose.

"It's getting pretty close," said James Austin, whose family owns the business. If Brown's body starts decomposing, Austin said, her family might have to consider a closed-casket funeral or cremation. "There's nothing we can do," Austin said.

At issue is the $6,000 the funeral home says it needs to bury Brown. The funeral home has given Brown's family until tomorrow to come up with the money or consider cremation.

Brown's relatives say they don't have the money and insist that the city should pay for the funeral. Brown, 33, died June 5 of a cerebral hemorrhage at Georgetown University Hospital. The D.C. medical examiner told Brown's family that she had several ailments, including hypertension and high blood pressure.

Brown's family said she was healthy before she was shot two years ago by a former girlfriend. They say her health problems were caused by the shooting.

Because Brown's death was not ruled a homicide, D.C. authorities say her family is not entitled to receive any money from a compensation fund that aids relatives of homicide victims and is overseen by the D.C. Superior Court.

"Medical authorities tell the Court that Ms. Brown's death was not a result of the injuries she sustained when victimized by crime in 2007 and, as a result, the D.C. Code provides that the Court's Crime Victims Compensation Program may not cover funeral costs," court spokeswoman Leah Gurowitz said in a statement.

Many D.C. residents, particularly the uninsured, rely on the fund to pay for their loved ones' funerals. Last year, the program, which pays up to $6,000 for funeral expenses, paid $9.4 million in 2,958 claims to victims of violent crimes and their families. That's up from $8.3 million and 2,522 claims in 2007, according to court records.

Gurowitz said the court has paid families years after a death, but only when a medical examiner has ruled that the victim was slain.

After the shooting, the victims' compensation fund gave Brown and her family $10,000 to cover her lost wages. For the past year and a half, Brown had used the money for items for herself and her mother, Stephany Hill, including a bed, clothes, living room furniture and a 26-inch flat-screen TV for their house in Southeast Washington, Hill said. She used $393, the last of the money, to pay for the blue suit Brown now wears.

Hill says that her daughter's death meets the criteria for the funeral money. "My baby never had high blood pressure or hypertension before she got shot," said Hill, sitting in the wheelchair she has used since 2005 after a series of strokes. "Everything that happened to my baby happened to her since she got shot."

Brown's shooting in October 2007 was a case of domestic violence. After leaving work at a Safeway store in Adams Morgan, police say, Brown was approached by former girlfriend Raina L. Johnson, who walked up to her in a jealous rage and shot her in the neck. Witnesses said they heard Johnson shout at Brown, "I said I was going to get you," before shouting an epithet and running away.

The bullet ripped through Brown's spine, paralyzing her from the neck down. Until she was discharged this year to live with her family, Brown had spent most of her days on a ventilator in a Capitol Hill rehabilitation center. She could barely speak above a whisper, and talking for more than 15 minutes would wear her out, causing her to break out into a sweat. To get a visitor's attention, Brown had to make clicking sounds with her mouth.

Two months before the shooting, Brown had taken out a civil protection order against Johnson in D.C. Superior Court.

Johnson pleaded guilty to assault with intent to kill, and D.C. Superior Court Judge Harold L. Cushenberry Jr. sentenced her to 28 years in prison in March 2008. Cushenberry called the shooting "extraordinarily brutal."

In April, doctors released Brown from the rehab center and allowed her to return to the government-subsidized home she shared with her mother and siblings. Medicaid paid for the on-call nurse who visited the house. One morning two months later, Brown was found unresponsive and was rushed to Georgetown University Hospital, where she died.

"Toni was a victim of a crime. A crime that took her life," Hill said. "How are they going to deny us now?"