Local News in Brief : Prosecutor Dropped in Morticians Case
A Pasadena Superior Court judge has removed a prosecutor in the trial of three Pasadena morticians charged with stealing dental gold from corpses, conducting mass cremations and illegally selling body parts to scientific laboratories.
Acting on a motion from defense attorneys, Judge Terry Smerling removed Deputy Dist. Atty. JoAnn Glidden because of her friendship with a prosecutor whom defendant David Sconce allegedly threatened to have killed. That prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Walt Lewis, was the first to handle the Sconce case and was replaced by Glidden last year after the alleged threat.
Now handling the case is Deputy Dist. Atty. James E. Rogan.
Sconce and his parents, Jerry and Laurieanne Sconce, face a total of 68 felony and misdemeanor counts in connection with their operation of the Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena and Coastal Cremations Inc.
Last week, David Sconce was ordered to stand trial on a new charge of conspiracy to murder the owner of a competing cremation operation.
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