POCATELLO — A new attorney will be required to undertake the case of former Downard Funeral Home owner Lance Peck.
The Bannock County Public Defender’s Office has been assigned to represent Peck after his Pocatello attorney, Richard Blok, officially withdrew from the case Monday.
Blok, in a motion filed last month, said he was unable to continue representation, citing Peck’s unpaid legal fees of more than $37,500 and what he described as an unreasonable financial burden of taking the case to trial after 6th District Judge Javier Gabiola rejected a plea agreement that would have limited Peck’s mandatory prison sentence to three years.
According to court documents, Peck has been unable to keep up with his fee agreement since at least November 2023. Despite accumulating significant legal debts, Blok continued to represent Peck through mediation proceedings that resulted in a binding plea agreement between Peck and Bannock County prosecutors in May — only to have Gabiola reject it in October.
“Mr. Peck was well aware that the undersigned was agreeing to continue only to complete the plea, and would not be able to continue if this matter went to trial,” Blok wrote in his motion to withdraw. “If Mr. Peck wanted counsel to take the matter to trial, he would have to pay the balance and a significant retainer for trial. Mr. Peck is unable to do so.”
Blok’s motion outlined the substantial resources required to take Peck’s case to trial, with total costs estimated to exceed $250,000. The trial would likely last five or more weeks, would require additional pretrial motions, the assistance of another attorney sitting in a second chair and would need to be held in another county due to the difficulty of finding an impartial jury in Bannock County given the extensive media coverage the case has received, according to Blok’s motion to withdraw.
“There are additional significant motion practices that were not pursued because of the negotiations that will need to be pursued,” Blok wrote. “A second chair will be necessary because of the level of complication. It will likely take more than a year to take this matter to trial.”
According to Blok’s motion, a recent significant felony trial he handled that lasted just five days was held in another county, required a second chair and cost approximately $150,000 with seven months of preparation.
Notwithstanding the financial and logistical aspects involved with taking a case to trial, the motion also cited the emotional toll the case has taken on Blok himself.
“This case has been trying, and the court’s most recent ruling has been deflating, to say the least,” he wrote. “I do not believe I will be able to continue to provide diligent and zealous representation to Mr. Peck as is required of me.”
In addition to the motion to withdraw, a lengthy 145-page sentencing memorandum prepared ahead of the October hearing says Peck’s financial situation has become increasingly dire since the closure of Downard Funeral Home in September 2021.
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The memo says that Peck sold the funeral home property to Pocatello School District 25 for $500,000 in February 2023 but walked away with only $6,460.74 after paying off the mortgage, settling with prior owners and covering business expenses and legal fees.
Peck has also settled all 15 civil lawsuits filed against him by families whose loved ones’ remains were allegedly mishandled, with each settlement subject to nondisclosure agreements, according to the sentencing memo. These settlements, combined with mounting legal expenses in his criminal cases, have left him financially unable to continue paying for private counsel.
The memo also shed light on Peck’s declining physical health, describing him as requiring portable oxygen at all times due to severe pulmonary hypertension, sleep apnea and reactive airways disease. Medical records indicate he has been hospitalized multiple times in the past year for health emergencies, including episodes where he passed out due to dangerously high blood pressure, the memo states.
“His health has been failing, and he suffers from very high blood pressure, breathing issues, digestive tract issues and skin cancer,” the memo states.
Doctors have described Peck’s blood pressure levels as being in the “stroke zone.”
The withdrawal follows a dramatic hearing in October where dozens of Peck’s alleged victims filled Gabiola’s courtroom, anticipating the opportunity to provide impact statements during what they expected to be a sentencing hearing. Instead, Gabiola rejected the plea agreement that would have bound him to impose no more than three years of mandatory prison time as part of a 10-year unified sentence.
Rather than putting Peck at the mercy of the court with more than 50 years in prison hanging over his head, Blok withdrew the guilty pleas altogether.
The plea agreement had been reached through extensive mediation between Blok and former Bannock County Prosecutor Steve Herzog and was facilitated by retired Judge Stephen S. Dunn over two sessions in August 2023 and May 2024. According to the sentencing memo, the parties had “made significant progress towards a final agreement” before Gabiola’s rejection sent the case back to square one.
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Peck faces 22 felony charges and 63 misdemeanor charges stemming from his operation of Downard Funeral Home between 2017 and 2021. The case began when Pocatello police executed a search warrant in September 2021 and discovered 12 bodies in various stages of decomposition, approximately 50 fetuses in jars preserved for Idaho State University and dozens of unidentified cremated remains.
Court documents allege Peck misrepresented remains to at least 25 families while operating Downard. The charges include seven counts of grand theft by deception, five counts of furnishing false vital statistics information, four counts of income tax evasion, two counts of offering false records, two counts of computer fraud and two counts of perjury. The 63 misdemeanor charges include three counts of petit theft and 60 counts related to unprofessional conduct by a mortician.
If convicted of all charges with consecutive sentences, Peck could face more than 250 years in prison and fines of up to $140,000.
In the 145-page sentencing memorandum filed in July — a document so large it has an extensive table of contents at the beginning — Blok says Peck’s crimes resulted from a “perfect storm” of circumstances rather than malicious intent. The memo details how Peck’s cremation chamber was damaged in February 2021 due to an explosion caused by a pacemaker that had not been removed from a body.
The memo also talks about Peck’s documented mental health struggles, including a diagnosis of Dependent Personality Disorder that significantly impacted his ability to manage his business effectively, the memo states.
“Lance’s story is of someone who got in over their head at work, suffered an apparent mental breakdown, failed to ask for help and let his problems snowball,” the memo states.
Had Peck been sentenced in October, Blok would have recommended a sentence of six months in local jail followed by 10 years of supervised probation, citing comparable cases nationwide where funeral home operators received sentences ranging from probation to 18 months for similar conduct.
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The rejection prompted one person in the courtroom to shout, “Go to hell, Lance.” For victims and their families, the withdrawal of Peck’s attorney represents yet another delay in a case that has now stretched more than four years since the initial discovery at Downard Funeral Home.
Mary Alice Cantrell, who traveled 2,450 miles from North Carolina for the October hearing, expressed frustration at the ongoing process. Her son, Anthony Tucker, died in September 2020, and his remains were allegedly among those mishandled by Peck.
Rhonda D’Amico, whose husband Eric’s remains were entrusted to Peck in August 2021, has organized monthly Zoom meetings with victims to keep everyone informed as the case progresses. She still doesn’t know what happened to her husband’s ashes.
Peck is scheduled to appear before Judge Gabiola for a scheduling conference on Jan. 5, where the court will set dates for a pretrial conference and jury trial with his newly appointed public defender.
Bannock County Prosecutor Ian Johnson has indicated his office is prepared to take the case to trial, telling victims after the October hearing that officials are committed to seeking justice.
The State Public Defender Bannock Office stated Ashley Lavallee, the managing attorney for that office, will most likely take over Peck’s representation moving forward.
Blok declined to comment on this article citing a responsibility to respect his former client and the remaining legal process.
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