COMPANIES GIVEN PROBATION FOR POOR STORAGE OF BODIES.Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer A judge put four funeral-related businesses, including one in Burbank, on probation Wednesday after state officials reported widespread violations in the handling of bodies at an East Los Angeles East Los Angeles, uninc. city (1990 pop. 126,379), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a residential suburb of Los Angeles, in an industrial area. It has a large Mexican-American population. There is a performing arts center and a cultural center. A junior college is there. crematorium cre·ma·to·ri·um n. pl. cre·ma·to·ri·ums or cre·ma·to·ri·a A furnace or establishment for the incineration of corpses. crematorium Noun pl -riums or . According to a petition to stop operations by the state Attorney General's Office, inspectors on Jan. 13 discovered garbage and cardboard boxes atop a pile of seven bodies at Heritage Crematory cre·ma·to·ry n. pl. cre·ma·to·ries A crematorium. adj. Of or relating to cremation. crematorium, crematory a place where cremations are done. . Inspectors also found at least two bodies had been stored at the facility without refrigeration for two days. ``The bodies were actively decomposing and leaking fluids into a large puddle on the floor of the Heritage facility,'' the petition says. The Neptune Society of Los Angeles in Burbank, which maintains its storage facility at the crematorium, also was found in violation of state codes, including storing bodies for more than 24 hours without cremating or embalming embalming (ĕmbä`mĭng, ĭm–), practice of preserving the body after death by artificial means. The custom was prevalent among many ancient peoples and still survives in many cultures. them, the judge found. Los Angeles administrative law Judge administrative law judge n. a professional hearing officer who works for the government to preside over hearings and appeals involving governmental agencies. They are generally experienced in the particular subject matter of the agency involved or of several agencies. H. Stuart Waxman allowed the four businesses to continue operating, saying that the Heritage facility is now clean and that all the bodies are properly stored. But Waxman required the businesses to submit to random, unannounced inspections by the state Department of Consumer Affairs before another hearing within 20 days to determine whether the probation should be extended. An attorney for the businesses did not return calls. In court records, lawyers for the businesses blamed the problems on a high death rate caused by the flu and on the difficulty of obtaining cremation cremation, disposal of a corpse by fire. It is an ancient and widespread practice, second only to burial. It has been found among the chiefdoms of the Pacific Northwest, among Northern Athapascan bands in Alaska, and among Canadian cultural groups. permits during the holidays. But Waxman said in his order that other crematoriums were able to handle the volume and that the businesses failed to explain why some of the bodies were covered with garbage. |
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