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Judge Leonard Fleet to rule in Broward County Circuit Court on Menorah Gardens civil suit - bodies to be exhumed at Palm Beach County cemetery

Circuit Judge Leonard Fleet is expected to rule this week on the status of the civil class action suit that has been filed in Broward County against Menorah Gardens Cemetery and its parent company Service Corporation International (SCI). Fleet will rule on whether the case the may proceed as a class action suit. Lawyers for the families expect that either way, the suit will go forward based on the evidence of SCI's misconduct.

Attorney Theodore Leopold, a partner in the West Palm Beach based law firm, Ricci Leopold represents more than 70 families suing SCI in Palm Beach County Circuit court. Leopold's cases are not part of the civil class action, but are individual cases. Each case has been filed separately. Judge Fleet's ruling in the Broward County case will have no effect on Leopold's cases, which are presided over by Judge Art Wroble in West Palm Beach. Leopold and a number of the families he represents will begin opening graves and exhuming loved ones over the next 14 - 60 days at the Palm Beach County Menorah Gardens cemetery. We will be looking for evidence that: Menorah Gardens/Service Corporation International secretly broke open burial vaults and dumped remains in a wooded area where the remains may have been consumed by wild animals; buried remains in locations other than those graves purchased by customers; crushed burial vaults in order to make room for other vaults; buried remains on top of the other rather than side-by-side; secretly dug up and removed remains; secretly buried remains head-to-foot rather than side-by-side; secretly mixed body parts and remains from different individuals; secretly allowed plots owned by one party to be occupied by a different person; secretly sold plots in rows where there were more graves assigned than the rows could accommodate; allowed graves to encroach on other plots; sold plots so narrow that they could not accommodate standard burial vaults; participated in the desecration of gravesites and markers and disturbed the plaintiff's loved ones remains.

Most recently SCI was fined $14 million by the State of Florida attorney generals office in a criminal investigation of its business practices in Palm Beach and Broward counties. Additionally, two Menorah Gardens executives have been charged with felony offenses for their and SCI's behavior.

In light of the recent confirmation of human remains being found in the woods adjacent to the Menorah Gardens cemetery in Palm Beach County, there is little doubt that these defendants violated the trust of individuals and families who were already suffering from the loss of a loved one. Another important issue here is that SCI and Menorah Gardens intentionally violated the sanctity of the dead and violated Jewish law.