Santa Ana : Cemetery Vandals Told to Pay Costs of Repairs

Four teen-agers who broke 22 tombstones and knocked down an additional 43 markers at a Santa Ana cemetery last September have been sentenced to work programs and ordered to pay the cost of repair, according to a county prosecutor.

A fifth boy is scheduled for a preliminary hearing next week, Deputy Dist. Atty. James Selth said. The youths, who are between 15 and 17 years old, were not identified because of their ages.

Sam Randall, general manager of the Orange County Cemetery District, said the value of the broken monuments cannot be accurately determined because some were constructed up to 100 years ago. However, he said the cost of replacing broken tombstones would be at least $5,000.

Instead of replacement, Randall said cemetery workers merely glued the pieces back together at a cost of about $500. The teen-agers, who all pleaded guilty to a charge of felony vandalism, will have to pay those costs, Selth said.

In addition to the work programs, which involve 15 to 30 days of such work as cleaning up county parks, one of the youths received a stayed term of two months in Juvenile Hall. The youth, who was “more involved” than the others, will be placed in Juvenile Hall if he violates his probation, Selth said.

The teen-agers, all reportedly members of a punk rock group, were at the cemetery, 1919 E. Santa Clara Ave., late at night on Sept. 14 and “started pushing over the monuments and it got out of hand,” Randall said. “They got ‘em rocking back and forth until they went over.”

Police arrested six youths two weeks after the incident at Foothill and Hillview high schools. One boy was released when it was determined that he had not participated in the tombstone destruction and had tried to stop the vandalism.

Randall said the incident was the most serious case of cemetery vandalism that district officials can recall. In response, he said the district is considering ways to beef up security.