The Yolo County District Attorney's Office has filed a civil lawsuit against two popular funeral homes in Woodland that they allege profited hundreds of thousands of dollars through deceitfully overcharging their grieving customers.

McNary's Chapel mortuary and funeral home and Kraft Brothers Funeral Directors are both owned by a married couple, Paul and Lailene Wiggins, who are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The DA's office says multiple families came forward to their Consumer Fraud and Environmental Protection Unit, which prioritizes civil investigations, with concerning allegations.

The unit launched an investigation and uncovered that from 2020 through mid-2024, the two funeral homes served more than 1,000 customers.

The complaint for the lawsuit reads, "In nearly every one of these transactions, the Defendants Paul Wiggins, Lailene Villaret Wiggins, Kraft and McNary's violated client trust, as well as California law."

The married couple has acted as both owners and funeral directors of the two businesses since 1998.

They are accused of, in the four-year period investigated, charging unlawful and fraudulent fees to their customers as well as knowingly falsifying a higher California state sales tax rate and pocketing the extra money.

The lawsuit claims that thanks to the deceitful practices, the pair profited "...more than half a million dollars from January 2020 to June 2024."

Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Clara Nabity said what their unit uncovered was unsettling.

"It's shocking that any business would take advantage of folks in this kind of vulnerable state," Nabity said.

One victim who came forward to the district attorney's office is Shelli Lara, whose mother died in July 2022.

Lara said it felt like she was being "punked" on a hidden camera reality show every time she dealt with McNary's funeral services because it was outrageous and enraging.

"Something was off, but I was in such a haze going through grief and trying to plan my mom's funeral that I wasn't understanding what was happening," Lara said.

Lara said the funeral home first would not receive her mother's casket from Las Vegas, where she died, because she did not utilize their funeral services upfront and that she had to "unbox" her mother's casket when it arrived at McNary's.

She then described unprofessional comments that funeral staff made to her, including that dealing with her mother's body would be like "dealing with a difficult drunk person" and that when staff were late for a viewing, it was because her mother was "leaking."

Lara said the comments and their behavior were crass and unprofessional.

"It's haunted us, the experience. Those were the final days of us being able to say goodbye to her that were overlooked by the chaos happening," Lara said.

Lara said her family was also overcharged thousands of dollars in inflated service fees for services they never even received.

When they pointed out the discrepancies, both before and after the funeral, Lara says her family was ignored.

"It's the last place you think you'd be taken advantage of. In a circumstance like that, you don't even think at the time to ask the right questions, but it was off from the first encounter," Lara said.

In one instance, the lawsuit alleges Paul Wiggins threatened a customer who was protesting the unlawful charges over the phone and mispresented himself as a Deputy Sheriff when successfully coercing the family into paying them more money.

"Wiggins threatened to discard her sister's cremated remains and send them to the Yolo County coroner as unclaimed if she didn't pay additional money," Nabity said.

For another victim, the Wiggins are accused again of making threats while trying to get customers to pay false fees.

The lawsuit claims they, "...threatened to refuse to lower Mr. Toms's casket into the grave unless they paid. Although Ms. Toms managed to convince Defendants' agents to lower the casket, the threat to leave Mr. Toms's casket hovering over his open grave, suspended on a crane, caused significant emotional suffering for a widow and children laying their late husband and father to rest. Ms. Toms recalls the threat being one of the worst experiences of her life."

On top of it all, the lawsuit alleges that Lailene Wiggins, acting as a licensed insurance agent, sold pre-need insurance to customers before they died to help pay for their funerals. The beneficiaries of the policies were McNary and Kraft funeral homes.

In almost every instance, "...they disregarded the guarantees Lailene Wiggins sold, and required families to pay out of pocket for expenses their deceased loved one had paid for in full," the lawsuit reads.

It goes on to say this practice was, "...allowing defendants to effectively steal from decedents while overcharging their survivors."

Nabity explained that the DA's office is pursuing the case in civil court, and it is unlikely the couple will face criminal charges, though the lawsuit alleges the actions appear to be gross misconduct under the law.

"When we begin an investigation civilly, we can't then switch to criminal. There are Fourth Amendment protections. We can't investigate something using civil enforcement tools and then switch except in very rare circumstances," Nabity said.

Nabity says they are pursuing restitution for the impacted families and an injunction to prevent these operators from deceiving any more victims.

McNary Chapel and Kraft Brothers Funeral Directors are both still open and serving customers.

Nabity says if the businesses are not operating completely within the law, they will file a motion in court for a preliminary injunction to stop their business from remaining open while the lawsuit moves forward in civil court.

"If we get information that they aren't, that these violations are ongoing, obviously we would do everything we can to try to put a stop to that," Nabity said.

CBS13 reached out to McNary's and Kraft, as well as multiple contacts for the Wiggins. We did not receive a response on Wednesday.

The defendants have also not yet filed an answer to the complaint in Yolo County Court.

Nabity says the DA's Office has sent its complaint to the California Department of Consumer Affairs Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, which is the agency that could decide to revoke the licenses for both.

As of the publishing of this story, Paul Wiggins is still listed online as a licensed funeral director and cremated remains disposer.

Lailene Wiggins is still a licensed funeral director and a licensed life insurance agent for Homesteaders Life Company.