Senator Lanza And Assemblyman Titone Present Bill To Patricia Oines

State Senator Andrew J. Lanza and Assemblyman Matthew Titone presented Patricia Oines with a bill signed by then Governor Spitzer, Friday, June 13, 2008 at 6:30pm.

On April 14, 2007, Patricia Oines discovered someone had broken into a mausoleum in Moravian Cemetery where her 25-year-old daughter, Jennifer Oines, was laid to rest.

The thief stole a notebook that contained hundreds of letters from Miss Oines' students, a guest diary, a porcelain clown doll, a stuffed animal, an angel playing a violin and three urns containing the ashes of the family's dogs.

Jennifer Oines died on Dec. 18, 1997, two days after the 1997 Ford Explorer she was driving flipped over on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn .

Ms. Oines tragic story inspired Senator Lanza and Assemblyman Titone to submit legislation (S5791-A; A8487A) which is an Act to amend the penal law, in relation to larceny of property at a cemetery plot, grave, burial place or other place of interment. It was signed into law on July 18, 2007 by Governor Eliot Spitzer. It is hoped that the new law will deter criminals from performing such heinous acts in the future and give more power to the public to prosecute such crimes.