LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Jefferson County judge wants the Kentucky Attorney General's Office to appear in court next month, a step toward getting an update on three abandoned Louisville cemeteries whose oversight is lagging.
WDRB News reported extensively on the case this week, revealing on Tuesday that more than $43,000 meant for cemetery repairs and maintenance had been idling in a bank account under the control of a former supervisor whose contract with the state ended more than five years ago.
In an order entered Wednesday, Jefferson Circuit Judge Patricia "Tish" Morris told Attorney General Russell Coleman's office to have a representative appear in court Sept. 23 to schedule a status conference. The order noted "the longstanding need" to replace Charles Rickert, who oversaw money from a trust fund set up for the properties' care.
Rickert ended his work in 2018 with the attorney general's office, according to court records. In 2019, then-AG Andy Beshear, a Democrat who is now Kentucky's governor, notified a judge his office was "diligently working" to find a successor. But that didn't happen under Beshear or his successor, Republican Daniel Cameron.
A spokesman for Coleman, a Republican who took office this year, told WDRB earlier this week that the office was working towards a long-term solution "that will provide a level of dignity for those laid to rest and their families."
At issue are three cemeteries — Eastern, Greenwood and Schardein — once owned by the Louisville Crematory and Cemeteries Co., which has been defunct since the 1990s following a state investigation into burial practices that led to criminal indictments.
The court-appointed receiver that followed also was charged criminally. Starting in 2001, Rickert had court-approved authority as the "fiscal intermediary" to use funds from a trust held by PNC Bank for the cemeteries' care.
The last spending report filed with the court was in February 2018, according to records reviewed by WDRB. Rickert died in 2023.
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