Post by Joanna on Aug 12, 2015 1:26:01 GMT -5
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — A Bedford man accused of breaking into the James A. Garfield Monument in Lake View Cemetery more than one a ago is jailed on $50,000 bond. Larry Bartlett, 33, was arrested Wednesday by Bedford police. The arrest comes almost 15 months after he was charged in the May 6, 2014, burglary. Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Deane Buchanan set Bartlett's bond at $50,000. His case was bound over to a Cuyahoga County grand jury.
Bartlett is accused of breaking into the monument and resting place of the 20th US president which is located just off Mayfield Road. Investigators believe he gained entry to the monument by smashing a window. A cemetery worker discovered about two dozen commemorative demitasse and teaspoons stolen from the monument and called police, who determined the person gained entrance through a broken window. Pieces of shattered glass were scattered inside and outside the monument. Police noted the lock on the case that stored the commemorative spoons was missing.
The 180-foot-high monument erected in 1890 features the only casket of a US President on full display. Garfield's wife, Lucretia, and their daughter, Mary, and son-in-law, Joseph Brown, are also interred in the monument. The casket rests near the glass case where the spoons were stolen. Bedford police recovered the spoons and returned them shortly after the break-in. Police collected cigarette butts, a T-shirt and an empty bottle of Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey outside the building.
Garfield was born in what is now Moreland Hills November 19, 1831. He was elected President in 1880, winning by just 10,000 votes. He was shot in a train station in Washington DC July 2, 1881, and died two months later.
According to a search of court records, Bartlett (above) was convicted in 2003 of aggravated robbery and sentenced to three years in prison. He was granted judicial release nine months later. He was convicted of assault and criminal trespassing in 2007 and given probation. He was sentenced to 17 months in prison in 2009 for domestic violence and disrupting public service. In 2012, he was sentenced to four years’ probation for aggravated theft fir stealing around $1,800 from two people.
Source: Adam Ferrise, Northeast Ohio Media Group, August 8, 2015.
