State Officials Vow to Jail Grave Desecraters : Probe: Grieving families are promised that culprits of ‘atrocity’ at Carson cemetery will be punished.

Hundreds of angry and grieving people who gathered Saturday at Lincoln Memorial Park in Carson were promised by state officials that someone would be jailed for the desecration of graves and the alleged looting of the unkempt cemetery’s maintenance fund.

As relatives of the interred sat in folding chairs under a sweltering sun, stood in restless knots or wandered through the weed-grown grounds looking for the graves of loved ones, Assemblywoman Juanita M. McDonald (D-Carson) assured them: “Someone is going to jail.”

The meeting at the 20-acre cemetery that straddles the border of Carson and Compton was called by state officials after it was discovered earlier in the week that headstones had been removed from graves and thrown in dumpsters, some graves were covered with only a few inches of dirt, some crypts in the mausoleum were improperly sealed, burial records gave incorrect locations for graves, and $430,000 was missing from the maintenance trust fund.

Lincoln Memorial is owned by the Hollywood Cemetery Assn., whose president, Jules F. Roth, has declined to comment.

McDonald and other state officials promised that a criminal probe would be conducted by the state Department of Consumer Affairs into the “atrocity.”

She also said a special legislative committee would investigate why the cemetery was allowed to operate in such a manner for an obviously long period without intervention by government officials.

Asked by a member of the crowd why nothing had been done previously, a top official with the State Cemetery Board cited lack of personnel.

Raymond Giunta, executive officer of the cemetery board, said he has only one part-time inspector to cover the 200 cemeteries and 150 crematories in California.

Giunta promised that state officials would be on hand beginning Tuesday morning to help family members locate the graves of their loved ones.

He said the 61-year-old cemetery, where generations of working people are buried, will remain open but that no additional plots would be sold.

Health officials, attempting to quash rumors, assured the crowd that conditions at the cemetery pose no health risk.

State officials were preceded at a microphone set up among the gravestones by dozens of people whose family members are buried at Lincoln Memorial and who took the opportunity to express their frustrations and anxieties.

“I have six members of my family buried here,” said Veta Harris of Los Angeles.

“I can’t find any of them. I’ve paid to be buried next to my husband. Where am I going to go?”

Members of the gathering talked about how gravestones of relatives had been moved from burial sites without their knowledge and that they were uncertain where their loved ones were interred.

“We have a baby here,” said Evelyn Smith of Los Angeles.

“The headstone was in one place and now it’s in another. I really don’t believe that baby’s body is down in that ground. I really don’t believe it’s there.”

Sharon Williams of Los Angeles was unable to find the grave of her sister who was buried more than 30 years ago.

“It’s really kind of depressing,” she said. “The final resting place is supposed to be a sacred, untouched place. If you’re not safe in the ground, where are you?”