Fallowfield man accused of raiding Charleroi Cemetery fund
Charleroi funeral director George Hogan discusses the neglected Charleroi Cemetery during a news conference Friday concerning a criminal case against a man accused of raiding the cemetery's perpetual care fund.
Charleroi Cemetery's appearance has improved since volunteers worked this summer clearing weeds and garbage from its grounds. (Photo by Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone)
A Fallowfield Township man who once controlled a neglected cemetery is facing charges he raided its perpetual care fund to pay down his debts.
Charleroi Regional and state police charged Joseph Minkovich, 47, of 5 Wesley Ave., Friday with three felony counts of theft and two counts of dealing in the proceeds of illegal activities, over accusations he stole $28,000 from Charleroi Cemetery’s trust fund in September 2010, court records show.
“A cemetery is a hallowed place,” Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone said when he announced the case in the Charleroi Borough Building.
“It was basically our country’s flags in a field of weeds,” Vittone said, while discussing the century-old cemetery off Deanbroggi Road in Fallowfield.
Vittone inspected the cemetery in July after receiving complaints from local residents about the condition of the burial grounds, where tombstones rested in knee-high grass.
Stacey Wolfe of Charleroi, who is leading efforts to restore and maintain the property, said she cried after going there on Father’s Day to see her family’s graves.
“It was disgraceful to see a cemetery like that,” Wolfe said Friday.
Vittone said he then asked police to investigate the cemetery’s trust fund, an account that had been established in 1973 at BNY Mellon.
Vittone said the cemetery’s ownership was “murky,” and that it appeared to have passed through a number of people since the organization was dissolved in 1987.
Charleroi attorney Rick Muddrick provided investigators with documents indicating there was a sale of cemetery stock in 1987 to Frank Rauchfuss Sr. and Frank Rauchfuss Jr., and another bill of sale in 2009 transferring the shares to Minkovich, who was a used-car dealer at the time, court records show.
Minkovich, who owned Rostraver Motors, is accused of requesting on Aug. 12, 2010, that BNY Mellon sell all of the trust’s shares, close the accounts and issue the check to Charleroi Cemetery in care of Joseph Minkovich, the affidavit supporting the charges indicates.
Police accuse him of purchasing two certificates of deposit with the money and then using them as a personal loan under an account that wasn’t connected to the cemetery. The money was then used to pay his “personal debt,” as well as to purchase food, utilities, gasoline and other merchandise, the record alleges.
Vittone said the investigation would continue to determine who actually owns the cemetery and if there was any criminal activity involved in its transfers of shares.
George Hogan, supervisor of a Charleroi funeral home, said it’s difficult to make final arrangements for burials at the cemetery because of the delays he’s encountered in getting the current person who controls the property, James Price, to open a grave.
Hogan also said he has to have the money in hand to pay for a grave opening there.
“There are a lot of gray areas,” he said of the cemetery, where unburied cremated remains were discovered in July in an unlocked shed.
State police are asking anyone who believes they were victimized by representatives of the cemetery to call 724-929-5090.
Minkovich, who could not be reached Friday, will receive the charges in a summons. It was not immediately known if he has an attorney to represent him in the case. He is scheduled to appear for an arraignment at 9 a.m. Oct. 15 before District Judge Larry Hopkins in Charleroi.