NYC Man Goes To Court Seeking To Boot Dead Uncle From Family Burial Plot After Dark Secret Posthumously Comes To Light

In Staten Island, New York, DNA Info (New York) reports:

• A nephew of a deceased Staten Island man wants to disinter his uncle’s remains from his family’s burial plot and exile him to another part of the cemetery after a dark secret posthumously came to light, court records show.
  
  Michael Fleming, 41, made the unusual request in a petition to the Staten Island Supreme Court, stating that shortly after the death of his uncle, Alexander Hamilton, his sister accused the uncle of sexually abusing her when she was a young girl.
  
  Hamilton, who never married and had no children, died in 2013 and is buried three grave sites away from Fleming’s father and other relatives in Resurrection Cemetery in Pleasant Plains.
  
  Fleming’s two sisters and mother won't visit their father’s grave because of his proximity to Hamilton’s, the petition says. Fleming’s mother, Geraldine, also refuses to spend eternity next to her husband with Hamilton nearby.
  
  “My mother and sisters refuse to visit my father’s grave due to the proximity of my uncle’s grave to that of my father’s location,” Fleming said in the petition. “Furthermore, my mother has made it clear that while she wants to be buried in the same grave as that of my father, she will not permit it so long as my uncle remains in his current grave.”
  
  Fleming’s sister — whose name DNAinfo New York is withholding due to the nature of the accusations — told her family that Hamilton abused her from when she was age 4 to 14, according to the petition.
  
  “My family was devastated to hear this,” Fleming said in the petition. “[My sister] disclosed to us that it was only after my uncle’s death did she find the strength and fortitude to open up to us and reveal the abuse she experienced by my uncle.”
  
  Fleming, who is the executor of Hamilton’s estate, said he has purchased a burial plot for his uncle in a different section of Resurrection Cemetery and is ready to move him. The petition said it’s easier for the family to move the uncle rather than their dad.
  
  “The reason we are seeking to disinter my uncle as opposed to my father is due to the fact that we have other relatives buried in close proximity to the grave of my father, and due to the atrocious acts my sister had been exposed to by my uncle, if anyone should be moved, it should be my uncle so that our family can pay their respects to my father and my mother can join him in perpetuity when the time should come,” Fleming said in the petition.

For more, see Nephew Wants Dead Uncle Booted From Family Grave After Dark Secret Surfaces.