TRENTON: Funeral home owner indicted

By Charles W. Kim, Packet Media Group
   TRENTON — A Mercer County grand jury has indicted a Hightstown funeral home owner accused of bilking a 96-year-old relative of almost $500,000.
   Joseph Barlow, 68, of Cranbury, and co-owner of Barlow & Zimmer Funeral Home, was indicted by the grand jury on July 13 on one count of theft by unlawful taking and a count of misapplication of entrusted property.
   Hightstown police arrested Mr. Barlow in late June after an investigation by Detective Benjamin Miller.
   According to the arrest warrant, Mr. Barlow obtained power of attorney in March 2011 from a 96-year-old female relative who lives in the borough. (Packet Media Group editors are not identifying the victim because of the nature of the crime.)
   Since that time, the warrant claims, Mr. Barlow wrote a total of four checks to himself, which he then endorsed and cashed at a Wachovia Bank.
   Three of the checks were for $35,000 and the fourth for $55,000, according to the warrant.
   In addition, the warrant alleges Mr. Barlow also canceled a life insurance policy on the victim, taking the cash value of more than $300,000 in September 2011. Police were made aware of the alleged activity by the state’s Adult Protective Services in May, according to police.
   Mr. Barlow surrendered to police at the time and was released on $25,000 bail.
   He is scheduled to appear in Mercer County Superior Court in Trenton for a hearing on Sept. 20, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.
   Spokesman Casey DelBlasio said Wednesday that even though reporters from Packet Media Group called the office around the date of the indictment, the information had not been placed in the system to be reported to the press.
   Each charge carries a 5-10 year prison sentence if there is a conviction, according to Ms. DelBlasio.
   Mr. Barlow’s attorney, Hal K. Haveson of Princeton, said that it is too early in the process for the defense to comment on the case, but an independent investigation by his office is proving to be favorable to Mr. Barlow.
   ”We are in the midst of an investigation supporting Mr. Barlow’s contention that he is not guilty of these charges,” Mr. Haveson said Wednesday.