Two Valley Men Arrested in Sex Assault on Corpses : Crime: Phares Gonzales and Brandon Christopher held on suspicion of burglary at Hollywood Hills mortuary.

Two San Fernando Valley men who allegedly broke into the mortuary at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Hollywood Hills and engaged in sexual intercourse with two female corpses were being held on suspicion of burglary Tuesday, police said.

Phares Gonzales, 24, and Brandon Christopher, 23, were booked after their arrest Sunday on the third floor of Forest Lawn’s mortuary, which sits just outside the gates leading into the sprawling facility. Police said the two men slipped past security guards early Sunday morning before setting off a silent alarm that alerted police to their presence.

According to Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Cherie Clair, having sex with a corpse is not illegal in California, leaving the men liable only on charges that they broke into the building and stole computer chips from a personal computer in the building.

Forest Lawn spokeswoman Paula Graber said one of the women was in a casket and the other in a preparation room when the two men assaulted the bodies. She said the families of both women were immediately notified.

“An occurrence of this type has never happened at Forest Lawn,” Graber said. “We are shocked, outraged and sickened by this. We are victims, too, because these two men broke into our facility.”

The Hollywood Hills location, which houses the remains of celebrities such as Lucille Ball, Stan Laurel, Bette Davis and Liberace, is one of five Forest Lawn sites, with others in Cypress, Long Beach, Glendale and Covina Hills.

Graber said that although mortuaries occasionally experience break-ins, this incident was particularly troubling.

“Every facility has a problem here and there with vandalism and things like that,” Graber said. “But nobody here can remember anything like this ever happening.”

She said the two men told detectives they went to the mortuary to use a Ouija board to contact the dead.

Christopher, of Glendale, and Gonzales, of North Hollywood, were being held on $15,000 bail. If convicted, each faces a maximum three-year prison term, police said.