Cemetery Lawsuits
- Two families with relatives buried in Burr Oak Cemetery filed a lawsuit in Cook County Court this morning seeking damages for the "supremely outrageous" behavior of four employees who allegedly dug up hundreds of bodies and resold the plots.
The lawsuit names Arizona-based Perpetua, LLC, Perpetua president Melvin Bryant, the cemetery and the four employees - Carolyn Towns, Keith Nicks, Terrence Nicks and Maurice Dailey - who are charged with digging up the graves.
If the stories are to be believed, this was going on for years and years and no one raised enough hell until now? One-hundred-thousand graves defiled? While we abhor the treatment of the earthly remains, we question the litigious nature of people who see this as nothing more than an opportunity to, quite literally, make money off of the dead.
Labels: crime
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
59 Comments:
This is what happens when you give people handouts their entire lives instead of making them fend for themselves. They start looking for ways to get free stuff. The Land of Opportunity has turned into The Land of Opportunists. Very sad.
think these motherfuckers visited their dead relatives regularly? this shit breaks out and now they`re concerned, fuckin` scumbags i`m tired of hearing `bout bullshit lawsuits
These people prob have never even been to this cemtetary til now. I will bet money that some of these people arent even related to anyone here and are trying to hit the ghetto lottery.
I was shocked, too, but then I realized the lawsuits came quick for one reason.
There are going to be SO many lawsuits, the insurance and the personal assets of the cemetery owner will be exhausted fairly quickly.
Any attorney is going to advise their client to sue fast, settle fast and walk away with the money. Anyone who waits, or wants a court hearing instead of a quick settlement will find themselves suing for what will amount to a big chunk of nothing.
I'm sure I locked that Maury D up back in the day. I remember joking w/him about his name and asking if he was related to the boss, good guy Maury Daley. I forget the charge, my old partner, now an A2 dick might remember.
Wow Ghetto-lottery hits a new low
People are greedy.
Both the cemetery employees and the aggrieved families.
Personally, when I die I want my body disposed of in a way George Carlin spoke of.
Just take my body up in a helicopter and drop it randomly somewhere.
Funerals are expensive.
I doubt that there is any money to be had!
The lawyers will take whatever cash is available and their clients will end up owning a cemetery that has no cash and whatever future income is generated will be required to go for maintenance.
Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. will receive a donation from the lawyers who he recommended to the claiments.
Mark my words. When all is said and done it is going to cost various levels of government millions of dollars. From DNA testing, to relocating bodies, to fixing up that hell hole of a cemetery; the burden will be borne by the taxpayer not that crappy LLC that owns the place.
Will the city be held liable for this? Everyone seems to sue the city for everything. Even if its not in Chicago, the city will probably pay.
I am a civilian. I used to live down the street from the cemetery. I remember my husband saying that he thought they were burying people in the same graves. There were the cement boxes piled up and it looked like the grass never grew on any of these graves. These were always towards the rear of the cemetery on 123rd Street.
My husband has been dead for over ten years so I wonder how long this has been going on.
Money makes it all better.
So what if aunteee hasn't been to the grave in 10 years. She was fining to go next monf.
a previous poster related that it will cost the county millions to investigate the crime scene--- think about what it will cost to prosecute these four individuals--- you're talking about hundreds of felony indictments per individual--- probably why the county called in the fbi--- let them assume some of the cost....
Soon it will all be the fault of the Chicago Police!
Notice how some of the graves and headstones had been removed ten years ago, but the only time someone came to visit was when they smelled a lawsuit. Before the news hit the "loved ones" had no clue that their "loved one's grave had been disturbed. http://stopthepresses2.blogspot.com/2009/07/babies-graves-vanish-from-ill-cemetery.html
I'm willing to bet that if any of the regular posters/readers of this blog were victims of the crap that's been going on at that cemetary, you'd be in a consultation with a lawyer yourselves, so STFU. I'm sure that a lot of the people there now checking on their loved ones suffered a lot of pain, not to mention the expense of a funeral and burial. For them to have to go through that again is unconscionable. Although there probably won't be much to get out of the owners of the cemetary, I don't blame them for seeking redress for this. Some of the people here are such hypocrites.
Its the police fault.
the offenders dont have a dime between them..the cemetery owners are probably strapped for cash...now let me see hmmmmm... lets go after the city of alsip and county for not conducting on site inspections and letting this travesty occur! its quite simple people...sue the people that have the money!
I think that the sentence about 100,000 graves in the Tribune article was poorly written. What was meant was that the cemetery has had 100,000 burials and that the records as a whole are in poor shape, if they exist at all. The problem then becomes that they have no real way to determine how many burials were part of this scam.
Folks, while there will certainly be plenty of opportunists who take advantage of the situation when they hadn't been near that place, let's tone down the rhetoric a little. There are undoubtedly many good families who were scammed and are suffering (and might never resort to litigation).
I'm more bothered by the phalanx of the usual group of TV-mugging "reverends" who show up and look concerned after the fact instead of dealing with the problem before it became a problem. You know darn well that many of them did burials there and saw those conditions. You also know that there are plenty of funeral directors who are complicit. I suspect that there was plenty of money flowing out of that place.
At the end of the day, the taxpayers are getting stuck with this one. Unfortunately, the best solution may be to shut the place down and turn it over to the Forest Preserve District, making the entire site a memorial and monument to the cruelty and greed of humanity.
Where the fuck they gonna get money from? the shitbag grave robbbers? The cemetary slum landlord
There's is no limit to how many will sue. The cemetery's records are such a mess that they don't even know who is and isn't buried there. I guarantee you that there will be thousands of "citizens" that sue the cemetery who have never even had any relatives buried there. I saw them interviewing a lady the other day on the news. She was probably 45-50 yrs old and was wearing a T-shirt obviously designed for a 12 yr old. The T-shirt said "Things to do in life" and below that where check boxes that said "Get rich, get famous, be hot." Here's an opportunity!
I know some of you won't even entertain the thought, but one word: cremation.
In the lands of our European ancestors... basically all of Europe now, basically everybody is cremated. In Germany, they have a 50 year or so rule for graves before the next person insisting on being buried is placed on top.
Still not thinking about cremation for yourselves? Imagine this: more than 300 million Americans have lived, already died, and were buried in the last 500 years. Good records exist for perhaps 100 million of them, and people visit the graves of perhaps 40 million of them. This includes veteran cemeteries, where most graves don't have specific visitors so much as those of us who go to pay our general respects to all buried there.
But for the most part, 30 or 40 years after you are dead there ain't nobody visiting your grave. And in 200 years?
Well, they might just be digging you up for an O'Hare expansion or a building project. Its happened dozens of times in Chicago's history alone.
Cremation.
Well clearly if the cemetery violated the terms of it's agreement with the families, they SHOULD be sued. Are you arguing that there should be no lawsuits here? That seems ridiculous. You people can throw around terms like "ghetto lottery" all you want, but if it was YOUR mother's grave that was desecrated you'd be just as pissed.
Get off your high horse.
Exactly SCC!
Saw some goof on TV bitching about the Burr Oak situation. He was like, "Blah, Blah, Blah, Chicago. Chicago, Blah, Blah, Chicago! Mayor Daley, Blah, Blah, Blah, Chicago!"
For the second time you low life, 4th generation welfare, tax cheat, just looking to win the Ghetto Lottery, because you couldn't afford to bury momma AND support a crack habit at the same time...
Burr Oak is in ALSIP! It has nothing to do with chicago, other than accepting our dead, the people that nobody else wants!
WHERE ARE ALL THE CHICAGO REVERENDS LIKE FLAKEY PFLAEGER WITH COMMENTS ON THIS? WHAT ABOUT REVEREND AL, [SHARPTON] COMING IN TO EDUCATE HIS FLOCK ON THE MORAL PRINCIPLES VIOLATED WITH THIS OUTRAGEOUS ACT? SATAN IS A GREAT DECIEVER, SOMETIMES ACTING AS A MAN OF THE CLOTH, GET IT?
So what if aunteee hasn't been to the grave in 10 years. She was fining to go next monf.
FUCK! That's hysterical.
You people are insensitive and ignorant. Maybe these people had bought plots for themselves in the future with the intention of eternally resting near loved ones. Now they may not know where their loved ones are.
You don't have to visit a grave to honor someone you lost. In fact, paying for them to have a resting place to be maintained is a special thing.
We all know that it's expensive to have a funeral and a burial plot. It can bankrupt some families and given that this is a black cemetery and blacks tend not to have the highest income, a lot of people may have broken themselves to pay for plots.
You think they don't deserve to get some money back from the company and people that committed these terrible acts? You think they should just say "oh well, I guess having a funeral was a bad investment but let's just move on." What do you think they should do?
It doesn't have anything to do with handouts or a ghetto lottery. If you think people don't deserve to be compensated for their injuries then why don't you let someone burn your house down or something and then walk away from the problem expecting no compensation for your loss. We'll see how you feel about litigation at that time.
Hmm,
Let me guess it's the family's fault that their realtives were dug up and moved? So suing is now some type of "Ghetto lottery". Reading half the stuff written on this Blog is just plain sick. As a black officer who has family buried there it's fucking sickening knowing that I,not only have to ride next, but also I must depend you fucks to have my back. Sorry Scc, I call BS. If your relatives were dug up and thrown into a mass grave like garbage, there's no doubt in my mind that you or anybody else wouldn't run down to their nearest lawyer's office.
Cremation is the way to go if it is through a reputable company.We have had four family members who went through a preneeds plan at a funeral home and it was very comfortable.
There are Creamation societys and business that have been sued as a ponzai scheme high pressure sales.
SCC OR SOMEONE -- IMPORTANT!
PLEASE GET THIS OUT TO WHOMEVER IT PERTAINS TO AT YOUR HQ ASAP:
Can someone in the CPD check the employee records, particularly those for OFFICERS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY that might be buried at Burr Oak?
We at the CCSPD want to make sure that all due investigative concern is given to any fallen CPD Officer that might have been illegally disinterred. I am certain that there are either fallen CPD or retired/medical members who later died and were buried at Burr Oak.
Our Detectives have found VA headstones in the rubbish pile, so we know that servicemen were disinterred; whether they died in combat or were entitled/honorable discharged to a VA headstone I am not certain.
Thank you for following up on this.
Signed,
A Concerned County Police Sergeant.
I am a retired PO and regular reader/poster on this blog. Contrary to popular belief, there are decent families that were devastated by what occurred at Burr Oak. My family members visit 4 graves several times each year; the last visit was in May '09(a couple of months ago. Upon checking the cemetery Friday we discovered that the flowers we placed there in May were still on 3of the graves; the 4th headstone has "disappeared". Is the just the headstone missing or has the entire grave been compromised; we do not know. Our priority is to try to determine what has happened to our loved one and not to make $$$. As many of you advise civilians not to lump all police officers in the same "bad apple" category, perhaps the same advice can be given to those of you that wish to lump families in this tragedy into one big pile just like the cemetery has done to some of our loved ones.
I blash tom darch for this one why the hell is it o we didnt know about this and why did it take a year to look in to it he need to go next i am sorry i feel he shuld have move in on this a whole lot faster then a freeking year.but no now it i am up to be re vote please i did this for you and now you people vote for me ! he need the boots
Dear International Olympic Committee,
Please do not allow this terrible worldwide coverage influence your decision in naming the host city for the 2016 Olympics. That place is not even in Chicago. We contribute dead bodies with all the killings on da South Side, but that is our only role as a city in this grave mess. Besides, those people didn't even realize what was going on after all these years, they take after their leader, Jesse L. Jackson, and just follow the money trail. That is all this is 'bout, da money.
Your friend always,
Richie
Richard M. Daley
Mayor, City of Chicago
PS: I think I fooled the citizens here into thinking that I did not sign the document putting the city on the hook for guaranteed funding, after stating that it was a done deal.
Cemetery is not in Alsip. Outside of the boundaries of Alsip, in UNINCORPORATED Cook County.
I would like to be torn apart by wild animals in the woods of Alaska...Go green-Recycle!
I disagree, their loved-ones graves were desecrated by employees of the cemetery, they are definitely liable in this case, I agree we've really become a litigious society, but this is one instance where it is definitely warranted. What savagery...
I think it is a law that registered funeral directors ar ethe middle men in burials in Illinois. If this is true, why didn't any of the licensed funeral directors serviving the African American community question the cash only transactions? nd the fact that the price was reportedly half the normal cost?
Sadly, more black on black crime.
I can't remember the last time that I had the UNPLEASURE of hearing so many self righteous retards in my life.....I suppose if this was an all WHite or mostly white cemetary,,,,,not a single White family would sue......get real...these families purchased a grave site....and its what they were suppose to get, regardless if there was daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or ever other decade visitations.
I hear that the Burr-Oak Cemetery Corporation has made a settlement offer to the families:
$2000 cash and a voucher good for 25% off your next internment, along with 6 months flower service.
well here we go...Hynes says we have to pay more money to bury welfare people. What does that mean? Like bury them deeper so their own people can't get at them? WTF
I guess it doesn't matter if the family visited the graves lately or not....this should never happen and the families have every right to be upset and to sue.
The litigious nature of our current american society in 2009 has nothing to do with the color of the people who are trying to sues color. Ask any police officer that works north and has been sued by white people for RIDICULOUS AND FRIVILOUS reasons.This is the United States of sue to get paid. EVERYONE does it.
Anonymous said...
SCC OR SOMEONE -- IMPORTANT!
PLEASE GET THIS OUT TO WHOMEVER IT PERTAINS TO AT YOUR HQ ASAP:
Can someone in the CPD check the employee records, particularly those for OFFICERS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY that might be buried at Burr Oak?
We at the CCSPD want to make sure that all due investigative concern is given to any fallen CPD Officer that might have been illegally disinterred. I am certain that there are either fallen CPD or retired/medical members who later died and were buried at Burr Oak.
Our Detectives have found VA headstones in the rubbish pile, so we know that servicemen were disinterred; whether they died in combat or were entitled/honorable discharged to a VA headstone I am not certain.
Thank you for following up on this.
Signed,
A Concerned County Police Sergeant.
7/12/2009 05:26:00 PM
I saw at least one family member holding ceramic photos of their father and grandfather that were formerly attached to the headstone. One was obviously a CPD officer in uniform. The ceramic photo had been torn off the headstone and discarded.
At least the cemetery workers are in Cook county Jail where they have at least a chance of tasting a bit of street justice.
why didn't any of the licensed funeral directors serviving the African American community question the cash only transactions?
---
Because.
Because many of their clients do not have a checking account or a charge card.
Gatlins, Leak etc. regularly take bags full of cash (down to 1 and 5 dollar bills) as the family gathers up all of the money it can muster from all relatives capable of offering up money.
The rub will be when Leak brokers a grave through their funeral home (meaning that they sell everything from the first call to the acquisition of death certificates), they they inadvertantly sell a tainted plot to some family.
A bunch of funeral directors are running for their lawyers right about now.
You can be assured that Flint Taylor and Jon Loevy will not be the plantiff's lawyers for this litagation!
They cannot blame Jon Burge and there is no money to be made.
to the cop who doesn't think we(white guys I assume by your post) have your back- your wrong and you know it- but when a law suit is filed the next fricken day you have to wonder about people- myself I would hope that finding my family would be my primary motive at the time- law suits will follow eventially-
hey, show some respect. my mother and father, and uncles and aunts are buried out there. i am heartbroken.
I find it funny that in recent stories on the news, the pressure has been taken off the 4 who committed the crimes (black) and put onto the people who own the cemetery but don't live there (white). It's like blaming a landlord who lives in Arizona for the crimes of his tenants who are in a building of his in Illinois being managed by another bunch of people under his control. I mean, if it can be proved they knew anything about it - go ahead and sue them - but chances are they knew little to nothing about it, and the news is just shifting the focus because it's always whitey's fault.
Burr Oak is in Alsip they incorporated a long time ago. They sat on it for a week before they realized they couldn't handle it and now don't want any part of it.
I’d rather be dead than buried it that cemetery.
rumor has it, that one of the arrestees told investigators that he dug up a body on the second day he worked there. its not that shocking to hear now since everything has come to light. the problem is hes worked there for over 25 years. i think i would have looked for a new career choice if i were him.
So what if people don't visit the gravesites of their relatives? How does that make what happened at Burr Oak any less outrageous? I don't visit the places where my relatives are buried because they are in my heart and always with me. But I'd still sue the fuck out of the people responsible for such desecration.
Back in the first half of the 1900's it was common to have so called term graves. Your loved one was interred there for a term of say 20 or so years. The whole section was term graves. then when the section was full and the term expired the whole area was cleaned of headstones and filled over, raised, so another section of graves could be obtained.
This was common I learned. I went looking for my grandfather's grave in St Adalbert's and I learned gramps was buried in one of those term graves, he died in 1931.
That is not done any more but was quite common then for folks who couldn't afford to buy a plot. The parish bought them a term grave. That is what I was told at St. Adalbert's about 9 years ago when I went looking.
Would someone please ansewr this.....How do cemetarys make money?
Just where do they dispose of the bodies or better yet, where would you dispose of a USED casket?
Whoever said the owners were white..The owner of the cemetery was interviewed on TV (in Texas i believe) and he is black. He claims to have no knowledge of what was going on...probably true since he hasn't been overseeing his business very well here in IL.
Stop using words like ghetto lottery... Its pretty racist. I am thankful that I am not one of these people. Some people may be trying to get PAID but I don't blame for instance the parents who have children in baby land. At any rate the blogger who indicated that it was important to file because there will not be enough assets to cover the number of law suits was correct. By the by, I don't feel bad for these large corporation that get sued. Many of them deserve to be sued...
Hahahaha
Delete.
Asshat.
Completely and utterly baseless.
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