Los Angeles Times - 02.10.2019

B2 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019 LATIMES.COM

Pursuant to Section 116470 (b) of the

California Health and Safety Code, Golden

State Water Company (Golden State

Water) prepared a report that provides

information on contaminants detected

in the drinking water at concentrations

above established Public Health Goals

(PHG) or Maximum Contaminant Level

Goals (MCLG). The purpose of the public

hearing is to provide the opportunity for

the public to convey comments directly

to Golden State Water representatives

and for Golden State Water to respond

to public comments on the PHG report

for the Artesia Water System, which

serves the cities of Artesia, Hawaiian

Gardens, Lakewood and parts of Los

Alamitos, Long Beach and Cerritos.

The public hearing will take place on

Tuesday, October 15 at the Albert O. Little

Community Center, 18750 Clarkdale Ave,

Artesia CA 90701 from 6 PM – 7 PM.

Interested persons are invited to attend

and express their views. Please direct

questions or comments concerning this

public hearing to Lisa Miller, Water Quality

Engineer, at (800) 999-4033.

Notice of Public

Hearing

SAN DIEGO — “Adam,
Jaren, Angel ... John,
Sebastian, Star ... Anthony,
Billy, Carmelita ... Solomon,
Natalie, Dylan ... Maya,
Michelle and Roger.”
Under threatening gray
skies Saturday morning,
these and 185 other names
were recited one by one at
the Garden of Innocence.
These are the 200 aban-
doned babies who have
found a home and surrogate
family in a quiet, tree-lined
knoll at El Camino Memorial
Park in Sorrento Valley.
Over the last 20 years, a
group of dedicated volun-
teers has collected these un-
wanted babies from local
morgues, given them a
name, placed them in a
handmade wood coffin or
urn and provided them with
a grave, a grave marker and a
well-attended memorial
service complete with a re-
lease of doves.
Saturday’s service com-
memorated the recent inter-
ment of Roger, the 200th
baby buried in the plot since
the first child, Adam, was
placed nearby on June 19,

1999. There to sing a song of
      farewell for Roger and all the
      other babies was Elissa
      Davey, who founded the
      Garden of Innocence two
      decades ago because no-
      body else would.
      “These babies needed
      help and we needed people
      to do this, but nobody was
      budging. Someone had to do
      it, so I guess it had to be me,”
      said Davey, 71, a real estate
      agent and notary from Vista.
      The idea for the project
      began percolating in Davey’s
      mind in 1998 when she heard
      about a cemetery for uni-
      dentified babies in Yucaipa
      called the Garden of Angels.
      That December, she read a
      story in the San Diego
      Union-Tribune about a still-
      born boy dumped in a trash
      can in Chula Vista. She
      called the coroner’s office to
      find out what would happen
      to the boy and he said if the
      body was unclaimed, it
      would be buried in an un-
      marked grave at Mount
      Hope Cemetery. If she could
      provide the boy with a digni-
      fied burial, he promised to
      release the body to her.
      After six months of plan-
      ning, paperwork and volun-
      teer recruiting, Davey bur-
      ied the first baby, with the
      appropriate name of Adam.
      Every year since, an addi-
      tional 10 or so babies join the
      garden.
      Over the years, Davey has
      expanded the project to 13
      other cities in California, Or-
      egon and Missouri. This
      month, the 400th baby will
      be buried at a Garden of In-
      nocence, either in Fresno or
      San Francisco. Davey’s goal
      before she dies is to have a
      Garden of Innocence in all 50
      states, but her savings for
      the national project has
      dwindled to just $6,000.
      “It feels really good to
      know I’m doing something
      special for these children,
      but it’s a letdown too, be-
      cause I’m not done yet,” she
      said. “We really need dona-
      tions to make this happen.
      There are so many babies
      out there in every state that
      don’t have anyone to take
      care of them.”
      About one-third of the
      babies buried in the Garden
      of Innocence were found
      abandoned in trash cans,
      creek beds, forests and road-
      sides. They include Michael,
      who was found floating in a
      pool of solid waste at a San
      Diego wastewater treat-
      ment plant in January 2000.

Most of the rest were ba-

bies who died in childbirth

or in the days afterward at

local hospitals and their

bodies were left behind with-

out any instructions from

the parents. In some cases,

the young mothers had hid-

den their pregnancy from

family and wanted to erase

any evidence of the birth. In

other cases, the parents

lacked the financial means

to pay for a burial or crema-

tion. In many cases, the

mothers were addicts, inca-

pable mentally or physically

of paying for or arranging a

burial.

Some of the babies lived

for several months, like

Samuel, who was killed by

his mentally ill mother and

then thrown from the sec-

ond-story window of an Es-

condido apartment. Not ev-

ery mother walked away

from her baby’s body by

choice. One mother was in

jail when her baby was still-

born. When she was re-

leased, the coroner directed

her to Davey, who took the

woman to the garden to visit

her child’s grave.

The caskets and urns are

handmade with oak, pine

and hickory wood by Boy

Scouts and woodworkers

throughout the country.

Then they’re lined with

hand-quilted padding glued

into place by volunteers like

Pat Goscienski of Ocean-

side, who said she finds the

work “uplifting and inspir-

ing.” The caskets are then

filled with a receiving blan-

ket, hand-knit blanket and a

tiny pillow. Each baby also

gets a small toy to take with

them into the afterlife.

For the first 150 babies,

Davey took the caskets to

morgues and gently un-

zipped the babies from their

body bags, wrapped them in

blankets and drove their

caskets to the El Camino

mortuary. Sometimes she

sang nursery songs to the

babies, like Mikayla, as she

drove. Now, other volunteers

have taken on this task.

The burial services, con-

ducted every few months de-

pending on need, are usually

attended by 100 or more peo-

ple. Some attendees are the

15 to 18 volunteers who keep

the organization running.

But many are first-timers

who come out of curiosity

and usually come back or

donate.

Each burial, sometimes

for two or three babies at a

time, features a procession

by members of the Knights

of Columbus, songs, a heart-

shaped funeral wreath of red

roses and a reading of a

unique poem written for

each child. Attendees gather

in a large circle and pass the

breadbox-size caskets one

to another by hand, a ges-

ture Davey said is designed

to touch each baby with the

loving hands of their newly

adopted family.

On March 1, 2008, Mira

Mesa resident Allan Mus-

terer read a story in the

Union-Tribune about the

100th burial service that day

at the garden and he rushed

to wake up his wife, Carol.

Musterer, then 65, was pre-

paring to retire from his po-

sition as a minister at the

New Apostolic Church in

Vista and had been praying

for a new faith mission. From

the moment the casket of

baby Annemarie was placed

in his hands during the serv-

ice that day, he knew he’d

found it.

“I let the experience sink

into my soul and felt like I

was being called,” he said.

Musterer, now 76 and a

retired engineer, is the presi-

dent of the Garden of Inno-

cence at El Camino. He

works with Davey to coordi-

nate services and volunteers

and help raise money for the

organization. Over the

years, the garden has been

run solely on donations and

proceeds from car shows

and other fundraisers.

Money is being raised to

buy a new plot in the garden

for burying cremation urns,

because there’s not much

room left for the larger cas-

kets. Many longtime volun-

teers have also asked to be

buried near the babies, so a

columbarium will be built

on-site. Niches will be sold

for $5,000, with all proceeds

benefiting future garden

operations and burial serv-

ices.

During Saturday’s com-

memoration, Musterer told

the small crowd that he has

found his work with the gar-

den spiritually fulfilling, be-

cause he sees these babies as

bringing together groups of

strangers to share the power

of love, family and faith.

“I’ve been blessed for the

past 11 years since Anne-

marie was laid to rest,” he

said. “Every time a baby

comes to the garden, they

become an ambassador for

God’s love. These 200 babies

are a massive army march-

ing in love.”

For service and historical

information on the Garden

of Innocence, visit

gardenofinnocence.org.

Kragen writes for the San

Diego Union-Tribune.

A final home for abandoned babies

A special cemetery in

San Diego reaches a

milestone: its 200th

burial. Each was given

a dignified farewell.

By Pam Kragen

VOLUNTEERS HOLD a burial ceremony at the Garden of Innocence in San Diego in 2012. Elissa Davey founded the cemetery in 1999.

Peggy PeattieSan Diego Union-Tribune

BRENDA WRIGHT and other volunteers drop rose petals onto the graves of

infants last week. There are Gardens of Innocence in 13 other cities.

John GastaldoSan Diego Union-Tribune

wake of high-profile inci-

dents.

LAPD Chief Michel

Moore said the increases did

not surprise him. The de-

partment’s 7,000 cameras

are holding officers and the

public accountable, he said.

“It helps both sides of the

camera,” Moore said Tues-

day after a commission

meeting. “The existence of

that camera helps answer

did the alleged act occur or

did it not.”

Overall, the total of 3,

complaints filed against the

LAPD last year was an 11%

increase from 2017 as officers

encountered a 6% rise in

calls for help. Many of the

complaints involved inci-

dents not captured on the

cameras. The LAPD also

made 2% fewer arrests last

year, the report said.

Several members of the

police commission, the civil-

ian panel that oversees the

department, urged the de-

partment to provide more

context when it presents re-

ports about annual com-

plaints. Commissioner Dale

Bonner said the report pro-

vides a lot of raw data, but

“it’s very difficult to put the

pieces together.”

A chorus of public speak-

ers told commissioners they

had no faith in the report.

Greg Akili, a member of

Black Lives Matter, said: “If I

wanted to hide something,

I’d put it in a report like

that.”

The LAPD began field

testing body-worn cameras

in 2014. The department now

collects about 14,000 record-

ings a day and has accumu-

lated recordings totaling 2.

million hours.

In 2015, LAPD brass ac-

knowledged that officers’

failing to turn on body-worn

cameras before a critical in-

cident had become a con-

cern, and it worked to reme-

dy the issue. The police

union contended that the

technology was new and

that officers were still ad-

justing to activating cam-

eras, especially in high-

stress incidents. Today,

Moore said, cameras are

properly used in 95% of all

deployments.

With body-worn cameras

fully implemented across

the LAPD, Moore said, he

wants to further use them to

make sure officers follow

guidelines in routine cases.

The department is working

with the union to find a way

to audit sets of random re-

cordings to look for “proce-

dural justice aspects.”

For example, the depart-

ment wants to make sure of-

ficers aren’t rude and they

explain their actions, to en-

gender public trust, he said.

Moore wants supervisors to

review the videos to deter-

mine whether officers need

additional training.

He called those types of

reviews the next evolution of

body-worn cameras, not a

“gotcha” moment.

“The onset of body-

worns is changing policing ...

for the better,” Moore said.

“It’s going to improve the

public’s trust and under-

standing for what we ask our

officers to do.”

The Los Angeles Police

Protective League, which

represents rank-and-file of-

ficers, said the report shows

LAPD “officers continue to

provide excellent service in a

professional manner and

demonstrates the reality

that officers fall victim to

hundreds of false com-

plaints a year.”

False complaints waste

resources and harm careers,

the union said in a state-

ment.

The union said it is a

strong advocate for training

that improves officer and

community outcomes. “As

police officers, we are always

looking for opportunities for

continuous improvement

and quality training,” the

statement said.

LAPD touts use of body-worn cameras

LAPD Sgt. Steve Wang loads body cameras at the Metropolitan Division. “It

helps both sides of the camera,” Chief Michel Moore said of the devices’ impact.

Gary CoronadoLos Angeles Times

[Cameras, from B1]