MONDAY, JULY 28, 2003
Volume 2, Issue 220
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Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
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NEWS OF THE WEIRD by Chuck Shepard
California’s Got Issues: According to an April New York Times report, California has spent $13 million in education money since 2001 defending its deteriorating school facilities against a class-action lawsuit; the state argues that it is providing as best it can on a shrinking budget (which of course has shrunk by $13 million just on this lawsuit). And a California Senate committee revealed in May that misconduct investigations of prison employees proceed so slowly that an accused worker could be on paid leave for more than two years before ultimately being fired when the charges prove true.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Don’t get the idea that I am knocking the American system.” – Al Capone
INDEX Horoscopes Be playful tonight, Gemini . . . . . . .2
Local Santa Monica surf report . . . . . . . . .3
Opinion Letter-writer needs vacation . . . . .4
State Wineries and caves . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
National Montana fire slows . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
People in the News Living ‘American Dreams’ . . . . . .12
Funeral home cremates the wrong body Distraught wife says husband specifically didn’t want cremation BY JOHN WOOD Daily Press Staff Writer
A Santa Monica funeral home is being sued for incinerating the remains of a man who was adamantly opposed to cremation. Brian Sturrock, a 46-year-old
professional speaker who suffered from a rare form of lymphoma, died in March 2002. His immune system had been weakened by chemotherapy. Nurses convinced his grieving wife, Eleanor, 39, to leave her husband’s body so that he could be taken to the coroner. They told her she would see him again before he was buried. Eleanor Sturrock, a musician and mother of three youngsters,
reluctantly left. She then contacted Gates Kingsley & Gates MoellerMurphy, a local mortuary on the corner of Arizona Avenue and 20th Street. She arranged for her husband’s body to be preserved and flown to a cemetery in Lancaster, Penn. There, an open-casket funeral was scheduled to be held before Brian Sturrock was to be buried in a family plot next to his father. The next day, Sturrock said a
worker at the funeral home called and asked that she come to the funeral home immediately but refused to explain why. She arrived at the funeral home and was told that a worker had apparently mixed up two bodies and her husband had been accidentally cremated, according to court documents. Sturrock said she didn’t know See CREMATION, page 5
‘Relay For Life’ raises thousands for cancer fight
By Daily Press staff
Santa Monicans raised more than $75,000 this past weekend for the fight against cancer. The Second Annual American Cancer Society Relay For Life took place this weekend at Santa Monica College and raised $14,000 more than last year. The estimated total raised by 45 Santa Monica-based teams this year was $77,100, said Santa Monica College President Piedad Robertson during closing ceremonies Sunday morning. The team event began Saturday at 9 a.m. and ran continuously until 9 a.m. Sunday at Santa Monica College’s Corsair track. The Relay for Life is a 24-hour community event to increase cancer awareness while raising funds for the American Cancer Society. Teams are made up of at least 10 to 20 people who walked or ran around the SMC track in shifts for the entire 24 hour period. Last year, 30 teams doubled the event’s goal of $30,000 by raising $63,000. The Santa Monica Police Department was the largest contributor, raising $23,000. The event is not only to raise money to fight cancer, but also to remember loved ones who lost battles to the disease and to celebrate the lives of those who have survived. One of the survivors is the event co-chair and Santa Monica Police Department spokesman Lt. Frank Fabrega, who was also involved with the event last year. Fabrega, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this year, said the event was even more important to him than last year. He underwent surgery last month and is now cancer-free. He thanked the Relay for Life teams at the closing ceremony and said that he may not have survived if it weren’t for their efforts. Relay for Life is the American Cancer Society’s national signature event. It is held in 3,000 communities across the country and raises more than $200 million nationwide. The money from the events accounts for 25 percent of the American Cancer Society’s
Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press
Participants in the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life walk around the track at Santa Monica College’s Corsair Field on Saturday, while at left, Santa Monica Police Chief James T. Butts, Jr. and SMC President Piedad Robertson talk to the crowd during closing ceremonies.
Case of ‘phantom’ car underlines thriftiness of Santa Monica juries BY DAVE DANFORTH Daily Press Staff Writer
A Santa Monica jury Friday couldn’t decide if a “phantom car” caused a 1999 accident. But even if it had, the verdict underscored the belief held by many plaintiff’s attorneys that local juries are thrifty and scoff at large awards Jurors — many of whom wondered how a lawsuit over a $637 repair bill could result in a request for about $28,000 in damages — awarded the plaintiffs, a long-time Santa Monica famSee RELAY, page 5 ily, only about 10 percent of what they asked for.
“I guess we still won,” said Cheryl Turner, attorney for the plaintiffs. David and Michael Turner were rear-ended in slowing traffic on the Santa Monica Freeway on Nov. 13, 1999. Several months after the mishap, they learned that the couple who hit them, David and Branislava Warner of Santa Barbara, contended they’d been rear-ended themselves and had been pushed into the Turner car. The third car, which had rear ended them, had sped off in a classic hit-and-run, the Warners said. See PHANTOM, page 5
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