Embalmer Takes Speech Case to Mass. Troy Schoeller admits he could have chosen his words more carefully when he talked to a reporter about bodies he worked on as an embalmer at a funeral home. Among a litany of graphic remarks Schoeller made was that he hates embalming fat people. He also described the body of a baby as a "bearskin rug" and made other crude observations about the difficulties of his work. After his comments were published in The Boston Phoenix, the state board that licenses funeral directors and embalmers revoked his license. Now Schoeller is challenging that punishment before the highest court in Massachusetts, arguing the revocation violates his constitutional right to free speech. "I didn't lie about anything," he said. I didn't say anything that was wrong. Schoeller argues that state regulators chose to enforce a vague and overly broad provision of the code of conduct that prohibits funeral directors and embalmers from commenting on the condition of a body entrusted to their care. Funeral directors and embalmers routinely talk about their work in trade journals and other publications to inform a curious public, and the provision should not be interpreted as barring them from ever talking publicly about what they do, said his lawyer, Jason Benzaken. Schoeller is the first embalmer in Massachusetts to be disciplined on those grounds, the lawyer said. Troy Schoeller poses at an intersection in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, Thursday Feb. 2, 2012. Schoeller, an embalmer whose license was revoked following an interview with a reporter, is challenging that punishment before the highest court in Massachusetts. He argues that the decision to revoke his license because of statements he made violates his constitutional right to free speech. Schoeller's statements were truthful, did not disclose confidential information and pertained to a matter of "legitimate public concern," and were therefore protected by the First Amendment and the state constitution, Benzaken said. "People are interested in it; people have a right to know what happens to their deceased family members when they are brought into a funeral home," he said. But the state Board of Registration of Funeral Directors and Embalmers found that Schoeller violated the code of conduct by talking about bodies in his care in an "unprofessional" manner. "Sensitivity, dignity, respect are at the very heart of this profession," Assistant Attorney General Sookyoung Shin said. "If his comments are OK, then any funeral director or embalmer in the state would have license to go out and describe the types of bodies that he finds nasty or that he finds amusing," Shin said during arguments before the Supreme Judicial Court last month. And if I'm someone whose loved one has just died ... the last thing I would want is to feel as though the funeral home to which I've entrusted my loved one's remains is mocking the condition of the body. Schoeller, 35, worked as an embalmer for 13 years in Florida and Massachusetts before his license was revoked in 2010. He said he agreed to be interviewed by The Phoenix, an alternative weekly newspaper, after he opened a clothing store called Horror Business in Boston in 2006. Schoeller said the reporter took notes during their first meeting, so he knew whatever he said could be published. He said the second meeting was in a restaurant and much more casual, and he did not realize for much of the evening that the reporter was recording their conversation.