Southeast / Long Beach : CEMETERY PROTEST

A handful of people whose loved ones were buried in a Santa Fe Springs cemetery urged authorities Tuesday to file charges quickly against the cemetery’s owners, who allegedly dug up bodies and resold graves.

“We’re demanding that the district attorney file charges,” Queen Malkah, a member of the group Graveyard Rip-Offs and Violations Must End (GRAVE) said Tuesday at a small demonstration outside the Criminal Courts Building in Downtown Los Angeles.

But at a hearing Tuesday, Los Angeles County Commissioner Bruce E. Mitchell was ordering the state Cemetery Board to go slowly on its case at the cemetery, Paradise Memorial Park. Investigators have said they are piecing together evidence in the case and want complete information before moving to have charges filed.

Mitchell told the Cemetery Board not to make any changes at the park until the next hearing, on Sept. 21, and ordered that Paradise remain open to visitors as the investigation continues.