DETROIT – Ownership and control of a Detroit cemetery is in limbo after a state administrative judge agreed with the state licensing board that cemetery owner Sam A. Tocco “lacks the requisite good moral character” (as defined by state law) to run a cemetery.
Per state law, MCL 456.538(d), “good moral character” means serving the public “in a fair, honest, and open manner.”
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Background: State has had enough of Metro Detroit cemetery owner’s violations
At issue is Trinity Cemetery on Detroit’s east side. Tocco bought Trinity Cemetery in 2017, but since then, according to the Michigan Dept. of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), he has been knowingly operating Trinity without proper state registration because did not apply for the legally-required change of control of the cemetery until 2021.
---> Cemetery operator ignored laws, lacked ‘moral character,’ Michigan regulators say
Sam Tocco’s involvement with cemeteries in metro Detroit goes back 20 years, and LARA, and the judge with the Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules (MOAHR) also took Tocco’s long history of cemetery management into account when determining Tocco is unfit to operate Trinity Cemetery. Tocco operated Knollwood Memorial Cemetery in Canton from 2003 through 2017. State records show that under Tocco’s management, $286,796 in cemetery funds were missing, and under Michigan cemetery law, fifteen percent of burial proceeds must be put into a special trust fund for cemetery maintenance.
Two years after he applied, in October of 2023, LARA issued a notice of its intent to deny Tocco’s application to control Trinity Cemetery, which he paid $300,000 for in 2017. MOAHR held a hearing on June 17 to determine whether LARA’s denial of Tocco’s Trinity Cemetery change of control was warranted. In its decision issued last month, the Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules said that after looking at the evidence, it agrees with the conclusions made by LARA.
Sam Tocco first came to Local 4′s attention when we learned he managed three city-owned cemeteries in Detroit. City-owned cemeteries are exempt from state oversight, but dozens of Detroit families told Local 4 their loved ones’ bodies or headstones were missing from Detroit’s Gethsemane Cemetery, which Tocco’s company managed from about 2013 to 2020.
Without legal change of control of Trinity Cemetery, Tocco cannot legally register his cemetery, so future ownership is unclear. Local 4 emailed Sam A. Tocco by email but did not get a response.