State Panel Takes Control of Troubled Carson Cemetery : Investigation: Attorney general is asked to widen probe after owners of facility are accused of embezzling $400,000.

By GREG KRIKORIAN

Aug. 19, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Moving with unusual haste as allegations of improprieties mount, state officials Friday seized control of Lincoln Park Cemetery in Carson amid suspicions that an estimated $400,000 in funds may have been plundered by its owners.

The decision to turn over operation of the 20-acre site to the state Cemetery Board came as more than a dozen of Lincoln’s employees failed Friday to show up for work, either to avoid a widening investigation or the wrath of hundreds of families angered that the graves of their loved ones were unkempt or desecrated. “I am just thrown aback. I never thought anything like this [could] happen,” said Assemblywoman Juanita McDonald, the Carson area Democrat who asked Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren Friday to open a new probe of Lincoln after a five-hour tour of the cemetery.

“When you see the disturbance of grave sites . . . when you see a mausoleum that has not been sealed properly, what else do you need to show that there has not been only no oversight but mismanagement,” she said. “It is insidious. It is preposterous.”

McDonald’s request came a day after cemetery board officials disclosed that Lincoln’s owners--who also own the famous Hollywood Memorial Park--may have embezzled funds required by law to be set aside for maintenance. Investigators also said some coffins were haphazardly buried a mere two inches below the soil, while dozens of headstones were found in trash bins.

Hundreds of angry people have been combing the cemetery throughout the week searching for evidence of what had happened to the graves and tombs of loved ones. McDonald’s press secretary, Steve Bagby, asked Carson sheriff’s deputies to increase their presence at the cemetery Friday. One new worry, Bagby said, was the discovery that many gang members were buried at the cemetery, which straddles the border of Carson and Compton.

“You are talking about a younger, more emotional group of guys. . . . Consequently, there has been concern for the security” of employees who worked there, he said.

Even if that concern was unfounded, authorities said they understood the anguish of families.

“It is just like the frustration you or I would feel if it were our families or our loved ones,” said Sgt. Robert Esson of the Carson sheriff’s station. “That is a real emotional game being played up there and it’s tough. Your heart really goes out to these people.”

To underscore the state’s role in both investigating and resolving the problems at Lincoln, McDonald quickly convened a meeting of state officials for today at the cemetery. Among the group, she said, would be representatives of the attorney general’s office and various departments including health and consumer affairs.

“I want everyone to see this act, this scandalous act,” McDonald said. “I want everyone to actually visualize what folks have met with their loved ones.”

McDonald said she hoped the 9 a.m. public meeting at Lincoln would serve to point up the need for a new look by state officials on regulating cemeteries.

McDonald also said she would press for a criminal prosecution in the case, although Lungren’s office on Friday said it was too early to comment on that possibility.

“The attorney general is very concerned about this,” spokesman Matt Ross said after Lungren spoke with McDonald. “We are trying to see what actions we can take.”

Even without intervention by that office, state cemetery officials were pressing forward with a probe that seems almost certain to result in some civil action by authorities against Hollywood Cemetery Assn., which owns the Lincoln and Hollywood cemeteries. Company President Jules F. Roth declined to comment Friday, as he has all week.

The decision to seize control of Lincoln, for example, reflected the concern of officials that its operation needed immediate attention.

“Basically, we have got to give some answers to the public [because] there is nobody to operate their cemetery,” said Mike Mintz, a consultant to the cemetery board. “These people are concerned [and] we just don’t want to hang them out.”

Although the state was reviewing the allegedly slipshod records compiled by Lincoln’s owners, it remained unclear Friday if authorities would broaden their probe to include other properties, including the Hollywood cemetery.

While Mintz said it was too early to say if that cemetery will be investigated, another person familiar with the state’s probe of Lincoln said it was just a matter of time. “Their day is coming,” the person said of Hollywood Memorial Park. “Because if [owners] were this negligent in one area, who’s to say [we] wouldn’t find something out there.”

Meantime, the stories of lives--and memories--upended at Lincoln continued.

Six months ago, Jacqueline Peete, 43, of Los Angeles, said she honored her late uncle’s wish and had him buried at Lincoln so he would be at the same resting place as her father.

But when she and her mother went to visit her uncle’s grave on Memorial Day weekend, Peete said, they could not find the marker.

“We went to the office and I asked them where [it] was . . . and it was sitting on a stack of telephone books,” she said.

The next time she saw it, she said, was on a television newscast last week, where dozens of tombstones were shown resting against a wall at the cemetery.

“It was a shock to see it there,” Peete said. “It’s hard to believe that people will cheat people for the love of money.”