Second Trial of Mortuary Owners Begins : Courts: Couple is charged with 30 counts of removing body parts, embezzlement and forgery.

The former owners of a Pasadena funeral home, charged eight years ago with mishandling corpses, appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court this week to begin a second trial on related criminal charges.

Jerry and Laurieanne Sconce, former operators of Lamb Funeral Home, will be tried on 30 felony charges involving unlawful removal of body parts for sale, embezzlement of trust fund accounts and forgery of trust fund documents.

The charges arose from a scandal that erupted in 1987 when investigators accused the Pasadena funeral home of removing eyes and teeth on corpses without permission, conducting multiple cremations at a ceramics factory in San Bernardino County and commingling the ashes of the deceased.

The allegations sparked statewide changes in laws regulating funeral homes. They also led to a complex web of twisting criminal cases and appeals against the Sconces and their son, David.

The Sconce family was originally charged with 67 criminal violations. But more than 20 charges were dismissed in 1989 before the trial began by Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling.

Outraged, the district attorney’s office began an appeal.

In the meantime, prosecutors took Jerry and Laurieanne Sconce to trial on nine criminal charges, holding a dozen others in abeyance.

In June, 1992, after deliberating for three weeks, a jury acquitted the couple of three charges but was unable to reach a decision on six others.

A mistrial was declared in those six.

Two years later, after an appeals court reinstated the charges thrown out by Smerling, prosecutors again began criminal proceedings.

The current charges include those held in abeyance from 1992, three on which a jury hung previously and the remaining reinstated charges.

The prosecution is hampered by the passage of time, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Nishinaka said, because some witnesses have died or moved away and others may have difficulty recalling events.

If found guilty, the Sconces could be sentenced to up to six years in prison. The Sconces’ defense attorneys did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment.