Prosecutors won a victory Wednesday against the nation's largest funeral services provider when a former cemetery supervisor at Menorah Gardens in Palm Beach County pleaded guilty to secretly pulling two bodies from graves and agreed to testify against the company and one of its executives. With his plea agreement, Robert McKay became the first employee of Houston-based Service Corporation International to be held criminally accountable in the South Florida prosecution. McKay, 47, agreed to testify in criminal and civil actions.

At two Menorah Gardens cemeteries in Palm Beach Gardens and west of Fort Lauderdale, SCI employees are accused of routinely burying people in the wrong places, breaking open vaults to squeeze in other burials and, in a few instances, removing scattered bones from broken vaults and tossing them into a maintenance yard or in the woods.

The first civil suit against the company scheduled for trial is set to begin in Broward County in early December. Prosecutors declined to say what impact the plea will have on their pursuit of criminal charges against SCI and its Florida subsidiary.

Civil attorneys representing hundreds of families suing the companies for improper burials and desecrations said prosecutors would be able to use McKay's cooperation to bolster the wide-ranging allegations of wrongdoing.

"I think on the criminal end, basically you have an insider who has pled to wrongful and horrendous conduct by this company," said West Palm Beach attorney Ted Leopold, who represents about 50 families suing Menorah Gardens in Palm Beach County.

"It is damning evidence about what this company has done, and it only goes to confirm what I, on behalf of my clients, have been saying for two years -- that this company acted without any care for the well-being of the families that were burying loved ones at these cemeteries."

Deputy Chief Assistant Statewide Prosecutor James Cobb declined to comment after Wednesday's brief court hearing, saying, "The plea agreement speaks for itself."

That plea agreement outlines McKay's punishment and what is expected of him in the coming months.

McKay was charged with exhuming two bodies without notifying relatives. The two felonies each were punishable by up to five years in prison, but McKay had no criminal record and was placed on three years of probation.

He also is barred from working in the funeral or cemetery business for 10 years. He will pay $9,500 in fines and costs of investigation and prosecution. "The defendant will testify truthfully, completely and consistently with his prior statements to law enforcement, to any [court] in which his testimony is required, both criminal and civil, in connection with the Menorah Gardens Palm Beach case," the plea agreement says.

McKay was given immunity for any other crimes he might have committed that his testimony would cover. He answered a series of questions put to him by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Lucy Brown to make sure he knew what he was doing by pleading guilty.

When the judge asked if he was pleading guilty because he was truly guilty, McKay responded, "Yes, your honor."

McKay's Miami attorney, Paul Calli, said McKay just wants to move forward. "It's been a difficult process. Mr. McKay was placed in a very difficult situation for a very short period of time at Menorah Gardens. Things that happened he regrets. He apologizes. He feels bad for family members that suffered."

The Florida Attorney General's Office announced an investigation into operations at the two Menorah Gardens cemeteries, which primarily serve Jewish families, in December 2001, the day the first lawsuit was filed in Broward County.

Criminal charges were filed in May of this year, based on interviews with former Menorah Gardens employees, family members and corporate documents. SCI and SCI Florida are each charged with two third-degree felonies for being negligent and incompetent in the operation of the cemeteries. SCI Florida's vice president, Jeffrey Frucht, 44, faces those same charges.

The same day the criminal charges were filed, SCI agreed to settle a state lawsuit by paying $14 million in fines and restitution and agreeing to ensure that burial problems won't occur again.

SCI spokesman Don Mathis said Thursday he didn't know what impact McKay's cooperation would have in the criminal case because McKay has declined to be interviewed by SCI attorneys. "We have no clue what Mr. McKay is going to say, and we have no clue how that is going to stand up versus testimony from other folks. There is a good deal of conflicting information about who and what," Mathis said. "The only thing to do is let the legal process work it out."

From the outset of the criminal prosecution, McKay -- who was fired in the summer of 2000 -- appeared to be the odd man out. Mathis has defended the companies and Frucht, saying they were the unwitting victims of lower level "rogue" employees who were acting against company policies.

Fort Lauderdale attorney Neal Hirschfeld -- who is pursuing a class-action lawsuit against Menorah Gardens in Broward County and represents the two families whose loved ones' bones were found in the woods in Palm Beach Gardens -- said McKay could prove to be a valuable witness.

"Bob McKay will be able to testify to what he was told to do or not to do by his supervisors, including Jeffrey Frucht," Hirschfield said. "Generally, I believe he will testify there were desecrations that took place in the cemetery and that his supervisors knew about it or ordered it. We're satisfied he is now able to tell the truth about what he was told to do."

http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/palm_beach_news/article/0,1651,TCP_1020_2388223,00.html