A Florida man who owns a weed-strewn Colonial-era cemetery in Queens wants a judge to declare the graveyard abandoned - and let a developer build houses where Dutch settlers buried their dead.
A lawyer for Ralph DeDomenico contended the bodies interred at Brinckerhoff Cemetery in Fresh Meadows disintegrated long ago - and dared the city to exhume them to prove him wrong.
DeDomenico, 59, wants to sell a developer the irregularly shaped 85-by-110-foot swath of land for the construction of two homes.
State law forbids building on a cemetery.
"Why can't you get it in your head? This ain't a cemetery anymore," argued Gerald Chiariello, DeDomenico's Forest Hills-based lawyer. "It's a dump."
Not everyone agrees.
Lawyer Paul Kerson, representing the Queens Historical Society and a local civic association, has written to Chiariello threatening "appropriate legal action" if anyone builds on the 182nd St. plots.
Kerson's letter also noted that the city put the cemetery under consideration as a potential landmark in 2000, outlawing construction through the designation process.
Lisi de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, confirmed the graveyard is still on the commission's calendar, but legal issues have hampered action.
"This is our heritage. This is the history of New York, which is being ignored," Kerson said.
Jim Driscoll, the historical society's president, doubted Chiariello's claims that the remains were hopelessly decayed.
"That's what they always say, 'It's all dust by now.' I don't know if that's true," Driscoll said, arguing the property may still contain remains of 77 pioneers buried in the cemetery between 1736 and 1872.
Hank Gottlieb, 87, who has lived across the street from the graveyard for 42 years and acts as an unofficial caretaker, also wondered how anyone could "un-cemetery a cemetery."
DeDomenico's father, Joseph, bought the land at city auctions - one plot in 1957 and the adjoining one in 1960 - with the hope of selling to a developer, Chiariello said.
Only later did he discover it was a cemetery and construction wasn't allowed.
The Queens Historical Society sued Joseph DeDomenico and the city in 1999, arguing the land should never have been put up for auction.
A judge advised the sides to settle out of court. DeDomenico offered to sell to the historical society for $100,000, but society leaders couldn't raise the cash.
Photo above - Jim Driscoll (l.), Queens Historical Society president, and lawyer Paul Kerson, who represents the society, in front of Brinckerhoff Cemetery. Credit - Farriella for News
