Cemetery Owner Files Civil Suit Against Family of Vandals - 11/3/2009

ST. BERNARD, Ohio (AP) - The owner of two Ohio cemeteries has filed a civil lawsuit against the families of three juveniles convicted of doing more than $300,000 in vandalism.

But officials with the Cincinnati Catholic Cemetery Society say they fear they'll recover only a small fraction of the money needed to make repairs to St. Mary and St. John cemeteries.

Some 300 monuments, gravestones and statues - some dating back to the 1850s - were damaged last year. An attorney for the cemetery society says it looked as though a tornado went through the graveyards in the Cincinnati suburb of St. Bernard.

One family is fighting the lawsuit. The insurance company for another has paid the cemeteries $30,000. The third family agreed to a $30,000 judgment but doesn't have the money to pay it.

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Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-11-03-09 1036EST