From the Daily News:
A construction supervisor charged with the deaths of two firefighters in the Deutsche Bank building blaze was acquitted of all charges Tuesday.
Salvatore DePaola was cleared of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment on the eighth day of deliberations.
Graffagnino's family had no comment. But his father has said the wrong people were on trial.
"I couldn't care less if they find them guilty or not," said Joseph Graffagnino Sr., who boycotted the proceedings.
"Most%A0of the people that should be on trial are not on trial - the City of New York, the Buildings Department, the Fire Department ... all the people that let this slip through their fingers."
The jury is still deliberating in the case of DePaola's colleague, site safety manager Jeffrey Melofchik.
Supervisor Mitchel Alvo and the John Galt Corp., the site's demolition contractor, opted for a bench trial. DePaola is the least senior of the three men.
From the NY Times:
A site safety supervisor was acquitted of all charges on Wednesday in the fire at the former Deutsche Bank building near ground zero that killed two firefighters four years ago.
The supervisor, Jeffrey Melofchik, was one of three workers who were accused by prosecutors of ignoring the removal of a 42-foot section of the standpipe — preventing firefighters from quickly getting water onto the blaze — as they rushed to finish the abatement work on time. He was the most senior official among those charged in the case.
1 comment:
Those two were made scapegoats -fallguys for the greed of the property owners.
I saw that building close-up, while the curtain wall was ruined, a the basic structure was OK.
Decontamination and interior/curtainwall replacement would have been more practical...it has been done to several surrounding buildings but, it was thought that the building would be stigmatized and thus hard to rent.
Two deaths, an expensive trial, careers ruined, a repairable building wasted....For a hole in the ground.
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