In 1995, within days of taking over as president of Wesleyan Cemetery, Robert Merkle withdrew $30,000 from the cemetery's maintenance fund, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

        In the weeks that followed, the unordained Methodist minister withdrew another $13,000.

Tall grass obscures grave markers at Wesleyan Cemetery in Northside. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        That money, deposited into a checking account Mr. Merkle controlled, was eventually depleted, as was the remaining $51,000, the prosecution stated on the first day of Mr. Merkle's jury trial.

        Charged with three counts of theft and one count of failure to maintain an endowment care fund, Mr. Merkle is accused of stealing nearly $100,000 from the Northside cemetery's maintenance fund and using it for personal expenses.

        In opening statements Tuesday, Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor Andrew Berghausen told jurors the 62-year-old cemetery administrator knowingly deprived plot owners of the money they paid to help maintain grave sites and cemetery grounds.

        Mr. Merkle, Mr. Berghausen said, violated Ohio law when he failed to deposit at least 10 percent of the proceeds of grave sales into the maintenance fund and withdrew money before the fund reached a required $100,000.

        However, Richard Magnus, Mr. Merkle's attorney, called Ohio law regulating cemeteries “arcane and complex.”

        He told jurors that the state does not require a cemetery to maintain an endowment fund, which differs from a perpetual care fund.

        He said his client wanted to restore Wesleyan.

        “He spent cemetery funds on cemetery operations. At no time did he steal any money. He was trying to make the cemetery work. He failed,” Mr. Magnus said.

        He added that his client was paid an annual salary of $26,500, an amount approved by the cemetery's board of trustees — members of Mr. Merkle's family, who helped oversee Wesleyan operations.

        “There was nothing wrong with him getting a salary,” Mr. Magnus told jurors.

        Peter Randolph, a lawyer who preceded Mr. Merkle as president of Wesleyan, testified Tuesday that when he resigned in 1995 the cemetery's endowment fund contained $93,000.

        He said he never earned a salary and did not ask for one. “I worked for free,” he said, adding that he considered it “community service.”

        However, he opted to resign after a group of plot owners sued him and the cemetery's then-owner, the Rev. Joseph Garr, alleging they were digging up graves and throwing the bones into dirt piles at the rear of the grounds in order to resell prime burial plots.

        Mr. Randolph said the suit, which was eventually dismissed, was “stupid” and motivated by people who “didn't want people who looked like me” running the burial grounds. Mr. Randolph is African-American.

        “I didn't need the hassle,” Mr. Randolph said. “My job is a hassle, but I get paid for that. Mr. Merkle (who is white) looked like them. He wanted to take it over and I wanted to get rid of it. It was just that simple.”
       

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