LONG BEACH : Charges Sought Against Former Cemetery Owner

State cemetery officials have asked legal authorities to initiate criminal and civil action against the former owner of a historic Long Beach graveyard who is accused of having misspent more than $600,000 from the cemetery’s endowment fund.

The State Cemetery Board asked the attorney general’s office to begin civil proceedings against Dean A. Dempsey for allegedly mishandling the account. The board also urged civil action against Dempsey’s former wife, Debra Dempsey; his parents, Nelson Dempsey and Shirley Husbands, and a stockbroker, Bill Notrica. The parents had been trustees of the endowment fund.

The board has also asked the Los Angeles County district attorney to file grand theft charges against Dean Dempsey, 41.

Cemetery board officials began investigating the accounts at Sunnyside Cemetery after receiving complaints that the site had fallen into disrepair. The investigation determined that Dempsey had spent endowment care funds to lease a Mercedes, make alimony payments to his former wife and to pay tabs at local bars and restaurants. The endowment fund, which once totaled more than $1 million, was supposed to remain intact, with the interest used to cover cemetery expenses.

Dempsey has denied the charges, saying he used the money to maintain the graveyard after he developed terminal lung cancer and could no longer do the job himself.

The cemetery is the final resting place of some of Long Beach’s most prominent historical figures.