A Hastings-on-Hudson cemetery has been sued for allegedly failing to prevent desecration of graves.
Tammy and Ari Thanos, of Mahopac, accused Mount Hope Cemetery Association of negligence, in a complaint filed on June 26 in Westchester Supreme Court.
“Mount Hope Cemetery owes a duty to Tammy Thanos and Ari Thanos to take reasonable care to protect their parents’ gravesites from damage,” the complaint states, but “has failed to exercise its duty.”
Tammy’s parents and Ari’s father are buried at Mount Hope.
Tammy’s parents died within 45 days of one another in 2021, of Covid. Her mother, Dina Rentoulis, was 58. Her father, Nikolaos Rentoulis, was 66. They lived in Mahopac. Ari’s father, Nikolaos Thanos, of Dobbs Ferry, died in 2022. He was 81.
Tammy and Ari arranged for tombstones to be installed and for flowers to be planted at the graves, according to the complaint. But the tombstones have been intentionally damaged and the flowers uprooted at least ten times.
The couple claim that the cemetery has refused to let them protect the graves by, for example, installing surveillance cameras “so the culprit for the vandalism could be identified.”
They accused Mount Hope Cemetery of negligence for allegedly not taking reasonable steps to prevent desecration of their parents’ graves.
The Thanoses are seeking unspecified monetary damages for the costs of the flowers and the tombstone repairs, and for “severe emotional distress from the damage to their parents’ gravesites.”
They also are asking the court to order Mount Hope Cemetery to permit them to install surveillance cameras.
Mount Hope Cemetery did not reply to a message asking for its side of the story. According to its published rules and regulations, “The cemetery assumes no responsibility for damage to memorials, plantings, trees, shrubs, nor to any items placed with or without consent of the cemetery, due to any reason, including … storm, lightning or vandalism.”
