Lawyer, Calif., spar over desecration suit

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Officials say there is no evidence a Los Angeles cemetery discarded human bones but a lawyer in a class-action suit says a state investigation was inadequate.

Michael Avenatti, the plaintiffs' attorney in a suit filed in September against Eden Memorial Park, says the state's examination of mass grave disturbances was "shoddy, pathetic and virtually non-existent," the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

The state Department of Consumer Affairs reported Thursday it found no evidence to support the desecration allegations by about 800 families of people buried in the Jewish cemetery.

"The kind(s) of activity they're alleging are not easily hidden, especially on a willful, large-scale basis," Department of Consumer Affairs spokesman Russ Heimerich said.

The lawsuit accuses the cemetery of breaking open interment vaults and losing or discarding human remains to create room for more burials. Avenatti says former groundskeepers routinely discarded bones for more than 10 years.

"Investigators from the state were told by various groundskeepers over a year ago that they had been repeatedly told to throw bones away, and yet for some reason, the state didn't adequately follow up," he said.

Service Corporation International, which operates the cemetery, called the claim "salacious," the Times reported.