Panel Orders Cemetery to Suspend Cremations

The state Cemetery Board has suspended cremations at Pomona Cemetery for 90 days to settle a complaint that the cemetery combined ashes from cremated bodies and dumped them in a vacant lot.

The nonprofit Pomona Cemetery Assn., which runs the cemetery, has accepted a stipulated agreement that includes the suspension without admitting wrongdoing.

The order settles a complaint filed nearly two years ago by the executive director of the state Cemetery Board that was based on allegations by former workers at the cemetery. The complaint accused the cemetery of “commingling human remains by placing the ashes from various cremations in aluminum cans and burying them” on an 18-acre vacant lot across from the cemetery. Cemetery officials then falsely claimed that there had been no interments on the lot and sold it to a home builder, the complaint charged.

The builder abandoned plans to build houses on the lot and sold it to the Roman Catholic Church for expansion of the neighboring Holy Cross Cemetery.

The settlement requires the cemetery association to develop a training program for workers who perform cremations, to comply with cemetery laws and to file quarterly reports. The suspension of cremations will begin July 1.

Linda Trujillo, chairwoman of TRUST (The Relatives Urging Sacred Treatment), which has been campaigning for strengthened state laws regarding cremations, said the penalty imposed by the settlement was too light in view of the emotional damage to families.

Trujillo said the 90-day suspension is nearly meaningless because the cemetery planned to close its crematory anyway for remodeling. E. Aurora Hughes, association attorney, said the remodeling has long been planned and the timing is coincidental. “The interests of all the parties were served by the judgment,” she said.

Carlos Perryman, whose wife was cremated at Pomona Cemetery in 1980, said the ashes were returned to him in a box that he later learned was too small to contain the remains of a human body. Former cemetery workers claim that excess ashes were commingled and dumped in the vacant field.

Antonio J. Merino, deputy attorney general who prosecuted the complaint, said the settlement avoids the cost that would be incurred by lengthy hearings before the Cemetery Board.

The settlement does not affect civil suits that have been filed against the cemetery association.