BOONEVILLE — A chancery judge has ordered the sale of two Prentiss County cemeteries whose owner was accused of mismanagement of prepaid burial funds.

The cemeteries are Liberty Memorial Park in Booneville and Prentiss Memorial Gardens in Baldwyn. Others to be sold are Pinecrest Memorial Park in Pittsboro and Sunset Gardens Memorial Park in Laurel.

The Secretary of State’s Office said Monday that recent success in clearing a $500,000 debt against the four cemeteries, which had been placed into receivership, prompted the action by Chancery Judge John Hatcher.

The secretary of state negotiated with the lienholder of a $500,000 deed of trust to release the debt at no cost to the state.

“Since we were named receiver of these cemeteries, our primary goal has been to place them back into credible, private ownership,” said Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann. “Judge Hatcher’s order moves us one step closer to that goal and hopefully provides some relief to Mississippi citizens whose loved ones are buried in these cemeteries.”

The investigation of the cemeteries found that the money collected for pre-need burial arrangements was gone and the cemetery records “a shambles,” Hosemann said in a previous interview with the Daily Corinthian.

Former owner Don Middleton was convicted on two counts of failure to file cemetery records. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail and fined $1,800.

Unless a plot purchase is funded with insurance coverage, the Secretary of State’s Office explained, cemeteries are required to trust 85 percent of all pre-need sales for vaults, memorial markers, and grave opening/closing services. Additionally, 15 percent must be maintained in a separate perpetual care trust on all sales of grave spaces to ensure the long term care and maintenance of the cemetery grounds. No trust funds for merchandise or services or for perpetual care were maintained by the recent owners and managers of these properties, Rogers Memorial Management Company, L.L.C., and Don Middleton, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

While working to clear the debt, the office also worked to reconstruct a client database for the properties.

All maintenance and upkeep will be turned over to the new owners.

Under the court order, potential bidders will have up to 30 days to inspect the properties and submit a sealed bid from the date of publication of the notice of sale. Interested parties are asked to submit bids to the Secretary of State’s Office; Attn: Dave Scott; 700 North Street; Jackson, MS; 39205. The sealed bids will be opened and recommendations will be submitted to Judge Hatcher for approval.