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SPECIAL REPORT * Class action suit over mishandling of bodies at cemetery is finally nearing settlement after nearly four years, but for most plaintiffs, it may mean . . . : Another Unhappy Ending

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

For nearly four years, Charles Barfield dreamed of rescuing his mother from her grave.

When she died in 1991, his family buried her where they could afford to, at Paradise Memorial Park, a Santa Fe Springs cemetery that offered some of the lowest fees in Los Angeles County.

Then, in June 1995, state investigators made a grisly announcement: Thousands of bodies at the cemetery had been mishandled, some even dug up and discarded. Since then, Barfield says, he has wondered whether his mother is still buried there.

A class action lawsuit filed on behalf of relatives of those buried at the memorial park offered him a chance to find out. Barfield said he hoped to win enough money in court to pay to exhume his mother’s body and, if he found her remains, move her to another resting place.

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With the case heading toward a final settlement this month, that hope now seems remote. Nearly four years of litigation has created 36 court files, a mass about 10 feet thick, and has left few people satisfied.

Cemetery and mortuary defendants have agreed to cough up more than $8 million. But claimants will get their share only after lawyers from more than 60 firms are paid and nearly $2 million is transferred to the cemetery to keep it open.

The remainder will be divided among the claimants, the exact number of whom nobody knows. Attorneys in the case can’t even agree on how many plaintiffs are involved. But with about 3,000 bodies mishandled, the number of claims could reach well beyond that figure, leaving most plaintiffs with hundreds rather than thousands of dollars in compensation.

“I think it’s a sham, it’s courtroom robbery,” Barfield said. “I don’t give a damn about the money. I’ve been poor all my life. . . . We just want to use the money to find out if she’s still there and rebury my mother.”

Anger about the settlement has been aimed primarily at the state over its failure to discover the abuses in time.

“The state should take all the blame,” said Louis Carter Jr., whose father was buried at the cemetery.

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But lawyers for the state successfully argued in court that California’s Constitution granted the state immunity from lawsuits alleging negligence.

Meanwhile, in Sacramento, the state agency responsible for preventing cemetery abuses like those in Santa Fe Springs has recently seen its investigative arm wither under the weight of budget constraints, leading critics to question the pledges after the scandal that inspections would be stepped up.

Like many cemeteries, Paradise offers a powerful reminder of how the rich and poor are treated differently, even after death.

Until the civil rights movement brought about reform, cemeteries in many parts of the country refused to handle the remains of minorities. Paradise, court papers claim, was the first cemetery on the West Coast “dedicated to the interment of people of color.”

For generations, its owners offered poor minority families an affordable resting place for their dead, charging as little as $300 for a plot that might be shared by seven other bodies.

But burial plots soon ran out at the 10-acre site, and Paradise’s managers began “recycling” plots, taking older bodies out and replacing them with the newly dead.

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The macabre discovery was made during an unannounced inspection by state investigators. At the back of the cemetery, inspectors found human bones piled in a heap of soil. Headstones had been removed. As many as 15 bodies were buried in a single grave.

On top of that, investigators found that the cemetery’s endowment care trust fund--set aside for maintaining the facility after all the burial plots were sold--had been plundered.

The discoveries sent thousands flocking to the Santa Fe Springs cemetery to find out what had happened. Attorneys flocked there, too. The three people who managed and owned the memorial park went to jail. Meanwhile, attorneys began filing claims against the cemetery defendants, the state and the mortuaries that did business with Paradise.

On March 25, a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner will decide whether to endorse the second component of a two-part settlement. In November, Commissioner Bruce E. Mitchell approved the first part, which involved a settlement with the cemetery defendants. Now he must consider an agreement drawn up with more than 40 mortuaries.

Together, the settlements would provide an award of $8.3 million, which will be paid by the defendants’ insurance companies. Of that sum, $1.83 million will go to the endowment care trust fund to maintain the cemetery, which will be run by a nonprofit group. Attorneys have asked for just under a third of the settlement money to cover their fees, leaving less than $4 million for victims.

Those who suffered the most egregious abuses will receive the most money. But many plaintiffs say that very little will trickle down to them. Attorneys agree.

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“It’s a travesty of justice all the way ‘round,” said Duane Folke, an attorney for a couple whose infant was buried at Paradise more than 20 years ago. “[The settlement award] sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t when you consider the thousands of families involved.”

After nearly four years of petitions and objections, many of those who buried relatives at Paradise say they remain unsure of whether the abuses affected their loved ones.

Burial records offer some evidence. Attorneys said records indicate that about 3,000 bodies were either removed or, in most cases, added to an occupied grave without the family’s permission.

According to the records, nearly all of the disinterred bodies had been buried in the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, investigators said.

But the cemetery’s records are not reliable enough to assure people like Barfield that their loved ones were not removed or mishandled. The only way to end their doubts, they say, is to open the grave, which can cost thousands of dollars.

Many of the victims vent their frustrations on the attorneys.

“It’s a joke,” said Sandra Jordan, whose mother was buried at Paradise. “It boils down to nothing more than a case about lawyers getting the money.”

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But attorneys for the plaintiffs say they have spent years working on the case and will receive only a fraction of their legal fees. Only the defendants’ attorneys, who will be paid by insurance companies and not out of the settlement fund, will win out, they say.

“It’s unfortunate that because the client is disgruntled, here we are again with the brunt of the lawyer jokes,” said Beverly A. Williams, who represents 35 plaintiffs.

A look at the huge court file that the case has produced shows that the wealthiest defendants denied responsibility for the abuses. The state was dismissed from the suit early on. Paradise’s insurance company claimed its plan did not cover criminal acts at the cemetery. The mortuaries who did business with Paradise argued that they had no knowledge of the abuses. And the people who ran the cemetery claimed they were near-penniless.

Without a wealthy target, attorneys could not extract a more generous settlement.

As the memory of the scandal has faded, the state agency that regulates cemeteries has had its investigative staff slashed. The Department of Consumer Affairs’ cemetery and funeral program has been reduced since January from five auditors and four inspectors to two inspectors and one auditor covering the entire state.

The program’s head, G.V. Ayers, insisted that the problem is temporary and should end in July. But, he acknowledged, without more funding, the same problem is likely to occur in future years.

The crisis has caught the attention of the office of state Sen. Jackie Speier, who spearheaded industry reforms after the Paradise scandal broke.

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“This is the worst it’s ever been,” said Richard Steffan, Speier’s chief of staff, of the agency’s plight.

Meanwhile, Barfield is still struggling with what happened at the cemetery. “I still want to go out and talk to my mother, regardless of whether she’s dead or not,” he said. “But I can’t do that. I don’t know whether my mother is there or not.”

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