Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Man guilty of moving markers may face arrest
By Judy Shipley Staff writer
JShipley(a)bcdemocrat.com
An arrest warrant could be issued for a man found guilty last year of disturbing a
historic cemetery in southern Brown County.
Daniel Scalpelli was sentenced to a year of probation on May 10. As part of probation, he
was to restore Fleetwood Cemetery after he moved grave markers to make way for a septic
system. In less than a month, his probation will end and the cemetery on Crooked Creek
Road remains unchanged.
“If it’s not done by his release date, then we’d file a violation,” probation officer
Jennifer Acton said. “Generally speaking, on a probation violation case, if they haven’t
completed something by the end of their probation term, we file a violation prior to the
term expiring and then they go to court.”
At issue is a small, overgrown cemetery on property Mr. Scalpelli purchased in 2001 to
build a home.
The cemetery has some graves dating back to the late 1800s. By some estimates, about 34
bodies are buried there, many with unmarked graves or some marked only by crude
fieldstones.
The most notable person is Revolutionary War Veteran William Wilkinson/Wilkerson, an
ancestor of former commissioner Jim Gredy.
According to court documents, Mr. Scalpelli was aware of the cemetery when he purchased
the property.
During testimony last year, he said he specifically asked the real estate agent if the
cemetery would interfere with him building a home on the property and was allegedly told
it would not. Court documents show that the necessary building permits were obtained to
build the house and put in a septic. So he began excavation work that included pouring a
foundation and putting in a septic that involved moving the headstones from the graves. No
grave shafts were disturbed when moving the stones.
Mr. Scalpelli said that he intended to add dirt on top of the cemetery to level the grade
of the ground and to return the stones to their rightful place. He had a diagram of where
each stone was to be returned. But he failed to submit a development plan to the
Department of Natural Resources and did not file any public records before moving the
stones.
A 2000 state law mandates anyone who moves gravestones must file a description and
photographs, as well as offer a development plan for the cemetery. Testimony showed that
no one mentioned the need to submit a plan to the DNR.
In court documents, Brown Circuit Judge Judith A. Stewart wrote that she had no doubt that
Mr. Scalpelli intended to restore the cemetery rather than destroy it.
“I also have no doubt that he had no clue he had to submit a development plan to DNR. He
had never heard of one and thought he had all necessary permits,” she wrote. “Especially
considering the fact that the law requiring the development plan was newly enacted in 2000
and that this event occurred in 2001, I don’t find his ignorance of the law to be
unreasonable.”
In early 2004, she found Mr. Scalpelli guilty of disturbing a cemetery and cemetery
mischief and not guilty of moving a grave memorial without recording. She suspended jail
time of 30 days and sentenced Mr. Scalpelli to one year of probation. Part of his
probation was to reset or restore the headstones to their previous state and to provide
access to the cemetery for family members of those buried there.
Originally from Helmsburg Road, court records show Mr. Scalpelli’s address as an
Indianapolis post office. He could not be reached for comment on the case.
Mr. Scalpelli has asked the Indiana Court of Appeals to hear his case. The court has yet
to render its decision.