The City of Chicago is asking a Cook County judge to fine the operators of South Chicago Chapel $11,500 for every day that 23 building code violations go uncorrected. The complaint, Case No. 20261401023 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Municipal Department, First District, was filed in late August, according to WTTW, which reported the suit Sept. 1.
Defendants fall into two groups. Midwest Group of Illinois, LLC, owns the building at 2939 E. 95th St., and 2939 E 95th Street, LLC, is the contract buyer. Clark Morgan, Johanna Morgan, and South Chicago Chapel Inc. are each named as lessees. WTTW and ABC7 call the Morgans the owners; the complaint lists them as lessees, so this article calls them the operators.
By the Numbers
What the complaint describes
The city inspected the property on Aug. 6, 2026, and the complaint alleges violations "on 08/06/2026 and on each succeeding day thereafter." Authorities found 56 decomposing bodies in the building that same day, a discovery Obitley covered on Aug. 25. https://obitley.com/stories/south-chicago-chapel-56-bodies
The complaint describes the storage room itself. It says 51 bodies were stacked there in varying degrees of severe decomposition. Half were inside an "insufficiently operating cooler." The rest were "strewn haphazardly" through the storage area in an "advanced state of decomposition," and "the stench was overwhelming and could be smelled outside the building." The filing records swarms of flies and numerous rats on and around the bodies, and calls the scene "an immensely unsanitary situation."
ABC7 reports that the 23 citations include work performed without permits, fire-safety concerns, and a failure to keep the property "clean, sanitary, and safe." The complaint also states, as quoted by ABC7: "This is an unlicensed funeral home that has been receiving deceased human cadavers for processing. It is apparent that none of these bodies were being 'processed.'"
Where the city says its authority stops
The Department of Buildings described the limits of its authority in a statement to ABC7. Its inspections cover public assembly, building, and life-safety code requirements. In the department's words, "the preparation, embalming, and storage of human remains are back-of-the-house functions that fall under the jurisdiction of the IL Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and are outside the Department of Buildings' authority."
That split matches what Obitley found in city records a week earlier: a 2025 license inquiry about the chapel was closed in seven minutes and never referred to IDFPR, which licenses funeral directors. https://obitley.com/stories/south-chicago-chapel-city-records
The earlier record
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza said earlier this month that her office was already familiar with the Morgans and their "egregious past practices" when it shut down their previous business, Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights, in 2025. The state closed it after roughly 100 bodies were found in inoperable refrigerated trailers; its license was permanently revoked by consent order in June 2025.
The Morgans have not been charged with a crime. Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke initially declined to bring charges over Heights Crematory, and an Illinois State Police investigation of that facility is ongoing, WTTW reported. Chicago police are conducting an independent investigation into the handling of bodies at the chapel.
CBS Chicago reported an earlier episode. Evergreen Park police found two bodies in a minivan registered to Clark Morgan outside the Morgans' home on June 14, 2024, two years before the chapel discovery. Morgan told police he was transporting the bodies from a hospice to Heights Crematory. His transport license had been revoked two months earlier, and no charges were filed over the invalid license.
Families and what happens next
For some families, the lawsuit does not go far enough. "Step in the right direction of accountability is jail. A fine is nothing. They got fined last year. That didn't help. They came back and did the same thing," Marshawna Campbell, whose mother was cremated, told ABC7. The penalty documented in public records is a $10,000 IDFPR fine against Clark Morgan in 2024, when the agency revoked his funeral director and embalmer intern license.
Beyond the daily fine, the city seeks temporary and permanent injunctions, a receiver if necessary, and an order authorizing repairs, cleanup, securing the property, or demolition, with a judgment and lien attached. The suit does not request immediate demolition, ABC7 notes.
The identification work continues. The medical examiner said Aug. 21 that 47 of 56 remains had been identified; nine cases were still unresolved as of Aug. 24. Separately, a proposed class action over the chapel is scheduled for its first hearing on Oct. 13 in the same courthouse.
What This Means for You
The city's suit rests on building code violations; the Buildings Department says the remains themselves are IDFPR's jurisdiction. The daily fine and the receiver option apply to the property itself. Any criminal exposure rests with prosecutors, who have not charged the Morgans to date. The complaint's account of 51 bodies in a storage room is now part of the court record in Case No. 20261401023.
*Sources: City of Chicago complaint, Circuit Court of Cook County, Case No. 20261401023 (PDF via WTTW News, Sept. 1, 2026); WTTW News, "City of Chicago Suing South Chicago Chapel Where Dozens of Decomposing Bodies Found," Sept. 1, 2026; ABC7 Chicago, Sept. 1, 2026; CBS Chicago, September 2026; Obitley prior coverage, Aug. 25 and Aug. 28, 2026.*
Get investigations like this in your inbox
Free. Every Tuesday.