Suit Charges Jewish Cemetery With Dumping Remains

By JTA September 15, 2009

A class-action lawsuit is accusing a Los Angeles Jewish cemetery of dumping remains to make room for new interments.

The suit filed Sept. 10 in Los Angeles Superior Court claims that Eden Memorial Park, one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the United States, instructed groundskeepers to “secretly break concrete vaults with a backhoe and remove, dump and/or discard the human remains, including human skulls, to make room for new interments.”

According to the complaint, the cemetery management “took considerable steps to conceal their fraudulent actions by threatening employees and witnesses with retaliation and the loss of their jobs.”

As many as 500 graves may have been affected over the course of 15 years, CNN reported.

Service Corporation International, the largest owner of cemeteries and funeral homes in the United States, was accused by the state of Florida of similar allegations in 2003 in another Jewish cemetery. It settled with the family members of the interred whose bodies were desecrated for $100 million.

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