Eden Memorial Park (Los Angeles, California)

USA / California / San Fernando / Los Angeles, California / Sepulveda Boulevard, 11500
 cemetery  Add category
In a lawsuit filed in September 2009, in L.A. County Superior Court, family members alleged that operators of this Jewish cemetery in Mission Hills broke open concrete interment vaults and discarded or lost human skulls and other remains as they made room for new customers.
The class-action lawsuit against Eden Memorial Park and its parent company, Service Corporation International, claims the cemetery improperly attempted to squeeze plots together to generate more profit, breaking existing vaults and moving or discarding remains in the process.
"We're aware of instances where they literally lost bodies," said Michael Avenatti, the lead plaintiff's attorney. "In other words, loved ones have been going to graves that have been empty."
"While very salacious, these allegations are just that -- allegations," company spokeswoman Lisa Marshall said response.
SCI has faced similar allegations at two of its sites in Florida. In 2003, the state attorney general there filed criminal charges against the company, a vice president and a superintendent. The former vice president, Jeffrey Frucht, pleaded no contest to three felony charges, including conspiracy, and served one month in jail and one year probation, according to the Florida attorney general's office.
In that case, the company paid out $100 million in a settlement with families.
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Coordinates:   34°16'55"N   118°28'0"W

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  • lenny bruce rip
  • The suit, brought last Thursday by the Newport firm of Eagan O'Malley & Avenatti, alleges that EMP, one of the country's largest Jewish cemeteries, "intentionally, willfully and secretly desecrated the human remains of certain deceased individuals interred at Eden Memorial Park and that Defendants had a pattern and practice of breaking concrete interment vaults with a backhoe, and then dumping . . . the human remains, including skulls." According to CNN, plaintiff attorneys charge that as many as 500 graves may have been disturbed in the cemetery that is the final resting place for Groucho Marx, Lenny Bruce -- and Holocaust survivors. Eden Memorial Park is a subsidiary of Texas-headquartered Service Corporation International, which agreed in 2003 to pay out $100 million to settle a similar suit involving the company's Menorah Gardens cemeteries in Florida.
This article was last modified 15 years ago