LEGAL MORASS DEEPENS AT CEMETERY.

Byline: EUGENE TONG Staff Writer

GLENDALE -- The death of Grand View Memorial Park co-owner Marsha Lee Howard at age 58 left attorneys and state regulators scrambling Monday to assess its impact on the legal quagmire she left at the cemetery.

Howard, whose body was discovered Saturday by several workers at her residence on cemetery grounds, was one of the targets of a state investigation into alleged financial mismanagement and mishandling of human remains that led to insolvency at the 121-year-old cemetery. She also was a defendant in several civil lawsuits.

On Monday, the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau of the state Department of Consumer Affairs dropped its action to revoke her business license. An autopsy is slated, although police have said there was no apparent foul play at the scene.

But a state suspension order remains on the unkempt 25-acre cemetery, which opened for just four hours on Sunday. Kevin Flanagan, a consumer-affairs spokesman, said several questions need answers before Grand View can resume normal operation.

``Who owns Ms. Howard's share of the cemetery?'' he said. ``Does he or she want to reopen it? And if so, can he or she qualify for a license from the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau?

``And, of course, there is also the issue of money, which is why Ms. Howard closed the cemetery down to visitors in the first place.''

Howard became licensed to operate the cemetery at 1341 Glenwood Road in January 1999. But state regulators suspended operations there in November 2005 after inspectors found the remains of some 4,000 people abandoned on floors and in storage rooms and trash bins.

Criminal charges of embezzlement, reselling of graves and mishandling remains were dismissed against Howard, pending further investigation, before her death. But she became a defendant in civil lawsuits filed by dozens of plaintiffs who owned plots or have loved ones interred at Grand View.

Paul Ayers, who is representing plaintiffs, said Howard's attorney filed a notice of death with Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday. Both sides were scheduled to meet this month.

Without Howard, her liability could fall to her heirs or to cemetery co-owner Moshe Goldsman, he said.

Also on Monday, the Glendale Fire Department removed a bulging 15-gallon drum from the cemetery residence. It was not immediately known what the contents were, though it was marked ``cleaner-wax,'' department spokesman James Frawley said.

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com

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