{"id":4276,"date":"2016-06-13T13:06:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T13:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minutes.machine.market\/?p=4276"},"modified":"2016-06-13T13:06:57","modified_gmt":"2016-06-13T13:06:57","slug":"ny-construction-company-guilty-of-manslaughter-in-immigrant-workers-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/machine.market\/blog\/ny-construction-company-guilty-of-manslaughter-in-immigrant-workers-death\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Construction Company Guilty of Manslaughter in Immigrant Worker\u2019s Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times<\/a> reports, a general contracting company was convicted of manslaughter and other charges on Friday in the death last year of a construction worker at a Lower Manhattan building site.<\/p>\n

Justice A. Kirke Bartley Jr. of State Supreme Court in Manhattan found the company, Harco Construction, guilty of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, both felonies, and reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, in the death of Carlos Moncayo, 22, an immigrant from Ecuador who lived in Queens. The company was acquitted of one additional charge of reckless endangerment.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office argued that Harco had ignored repeated warnings about dangerous conditions at a site on Ninth Avenue in the meatpacking district, not far from the High Line. The judge agreed, and found that the company\u2019s negligence had contributed to the collapse of a 14-foot trench on April 6, 2015, when Mr. Moncayo was crushed by thousands of pounds of dirt.<\/p>\n

The company now faces possible fines up to $35,000, and sentencing is expected on July 13. No trial date has been set in the cases against the other defendants \u2014 two construction managers and an excavation subcontractor \u2014 who also were indicted after an investigation that involved the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the city\u2019s Investigation Department and Police Department.<\/p>\n

The Harco case was watched closely because criminal liability has often been hard to prove in construction accidents in New York City. In 2012, the owner of a crane company, James F. Lomma, was acquitted of all criminal charges<\/a> in connection with the collapse of a tower crane that killed two workers. But in a subsequent civil trial, a jury awarded the workers\u2019 families $96 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the judge read the verdict aloud in court on Friday, relatives of Mr. Moncayo, including his mother, who had traveled from Ecuador to attend the trial, broke<\/a> down in tears and were hugged by Diana Florence, the lead prosecutor.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s guilty verdict should signal to the construction industry that managing a project from afar does not insulate a corporation or general contractor from criminal liability,\u201d said Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney.<\/p>\n

Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, which represents construction workers, said it was a \u201clandmark\u201d decision because \u201cfor far too long criminally negligent and reckless contractors have been merely slapped on the wrist with no real consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Ronald P. Fischetti, a lawyer for Harco, called the judge\u2019s decision \u201cextremely disappointing\u201d and vowed to appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no evidence that Harco, the general contractor, was involved in any wrongdoing,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the verdict stands, this would have a chilling effect on all law-abiding contractors in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Construction accidents have been climbing in recent years, and many of the victims were undocumented and sometimes poorly trained immigrants. A recent New York Times investigation into construction fatalities<\/a> found that the rise in deaths and injuries has far exceeded the rate of new construction over a comparable period, and that in the cases in which workers died, supervision was lacking and basic steps had not been taken to prevent workers from falling. The investigation also found that because of the urgency to finish these projects as quickly as possible, the workers were forced to take dangerous shortcuts or lacked adequate training.<\/p>\n

As a result, most of the deaths were \u201ccompletely avoidable,\u201d federal safety investigators concluded.<\/p>\n

Five construction workers have died so far this year. Twelve workers died in 2015, according to<\/a> the New York City Buildings Department, up from eight in 2014. The total has not been that high since the previous construction boom, when 12 workers died in 2007 and 19 in 2008.<\/p>\n

By DAVID W. CHEN<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times reports, a general contracting company was convicted of manslaughter and other charges on Friday in the death last year of a construction worker at a Lower Manhattan building site. Justice A. Kirke Bartley Jr. of State Supreme Court in Manhattan found the company, Harco Construction, guilty of second-degree manslaughter and criminally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nNY Construction Company Guilty of Manslaughter in Immigrant Worker\u2019s Death - MachineMarket Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cranemarket.com\/blog\/ny-construction-company-guilty-of-manslaughter-in-immigrant-workers-death\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NY Construction Company Guilty of Manslaughter in Immigrant Worker\u2019s Death - MachineMarket Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New York Times reports, a general contracting company was convicted of manslaughter and other charges on Friday in the death last year of a construction worker at a Lower Manhattan building site. 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