A Munhall funeral home director charged with abuse of a corpse for allegedly not refrigerating a body in a timely manner appeared for a preliminary hearing Wednesday.Michael Aldrich, 74, is the owner of Aldrich Funeral Homes and operates West Funeral Home in Pittsburgh's Hill District.When Dexter Owens died on Aug. 31, the family reached out to Aldrich and West Funeral Home to have Owens cremated.The district attorney says Aldrich did not refrigerate the body within 24 hours.Two other funeral home directors testified that Owens' body was badly decomposed when they took over the remains for cremation.The attorney for Aldrich says the dilemma stems from the family not honoring the contract and required payment."They entered into a contract to have it cremated. We send the body to the crematory. They call back, they don't want to pay," said Aldrich's defense attorney, William Difenderfer."He was charging the family of Mr. Dexter Owens almost four times the market rate for cremation services," said Paul Ellis, an attorney for the family.The family announced that they were filing a civil lawsuit against Aldrich. Even with the dispute about the cost, they contend that state law says Owens' body should have been refrigerated within 24 hours."To be in custody of a deceased individual for longer than 24 hours and not have it refrigerated, that's the subject of the criminal and civil charges," Ellis said."They called and said they wanted it to go to another funeral home, which we said, OK. We had the body come back from the crematory, and it was decomposing, which happens. And somehow, they're saying my guy intentionally abused a corpse. It's ludicrous," Difenderfer said.The criminal case against Aldrich was held for court after Wednesday's hearing.