FRESNO, Calif. (KMJ/KFSN) — The small Chapel of the Light Cemetery in Fresno, off Belmont Avenue, has been ordered to “cease and desist” operations amid claims of financial mismanagement.
The state stepped in after owner Buck Kamphausen wanted to transfer the cemetery and three others in the Bay Area to Evergreen Ministries.
It is a nonprofit religious organization that Kamphausen set up. Regulators fined all four cemeteries $5,000 each last month.
They say the cemeteries are unlicensed and must stop “conducting any cemetery business, including internments and selling cemetery property.”
The general manager of Chapel of the Light’s funeral home did not want to go on camera, but told Action News the citation only prohibits them from selling new plots.
The cemetery can still inter those who made prior arrangements or purchased their plot.
The manager stressed that the cemetery business is separate from the funeral home here, and he said there is “a lot of misunderstanding.”
In a forceful order in January, a Solano County judge was clear, writing:
“Evergreen Ministries was formed for the purpose of avoiding governmental regulation…”
She called it a “scheme of financial mismanagement … by a single person … Buck Kamphausen.”
“We haven’t mismanaged funds,” he told our news partner ABC30’s sister station, KGO.
“Most everything they put out, right from the start, was a lie. We are appealing their ruling.”
Chapel of the Light has been a mainstay in the Fresno community.
It has often hosted high-profile funerals for law enforcement.
The county has contracted with the funeral home, spending hundreds of thousands on cremation services.
The manager says funeral services are unaffected, and several are planned for the weeks ahead.
The sale of new plots at the cemetery remains halted as the appeal is underway.
