A cemetery worker accused of stealing hundreds of grave markers for years from the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery has agreed to plead guilty, according to court records.
Kevin Maynard, 59, will be arraigned in federal court July 13 on one count of theft of government property for stealing at least 150 veteran headstones to re-tile floors on his property, the papers filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island say.
Maynard has taken the plea agreement in exchange for a sentencing recommendation of one year's probation and 500 hours of community service, according to Rhode Island district court documents filed June 30.
Maynard had been taking "a few headstones at a time over several years" that were already worn or needed to be replaced to his alleged significant other's home in Charlestown, Rhode Island, to remodel a carport and a foundation for a shed, Michael Jolin, spokesman for the state Department of Human Services, told Military Times on Tuesday.
Jolin says that 202 headstones have been recovered.
Maynard, who has since resigned, had been a state employee with the cemetery since 2006, Jolin said. Officials suspect Maynard had been taking the headstones — set to be picked up by the Veterans Affairs Department to be destroyed — from a secured area on cemetery grounds since 2009.
Jolin said the VA supplies the grave markers, worth about $600 each, free to the cemetery.
"Now we do a regular inventory and accounting of how many headstones we have, and how many we're sending out to be destroyed," Jolin said.
Rhode Island state police and the VA Inspector General's office began an investigation in April after another employee reported Maynard to cemetery officials.
Jolin said families have not contacted cemetery officials about the incident, and believes "people were appreciative of the steps the cemetery took to resolve the theft and to institute new measures."
While headstone removal of this nature is uncommon, cemeteries that hold veterans' remains have reported thefts of brass plating on grave markers.
Cemeteries such as St. Joseph's Cemetery, Rhode Island; Breidablik Community Evergreen Cemetery, Washington; New Hope and Rockfield cemeteries in Texas; and Lake View Cemetery in New York in the last five years have reported desecration of veteran graves; dozens of individuals involved in these thefts — who intended to sell the brass for scrap metal — have been arrested.
Jolin said he is unaware how many headstones regularly need to be replaced at the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery or how many have been sent to the VA for destruction.
Maynard and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
