After 6 Months Trial, Jury Deliberates Over Workplace Death
After a six-month trial, jury deliberations have begun in Trenton, N.J. in the case of a Phillipsburg pipe company and five of its employees accused of environmental and worker safety violations, including covering up the circumstances of an employee's on-the-job death.
Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Co. and the employees — Craig Davidson, Scott Faubert, John Prisque, Jeffrey Maury and Daniel Yadzinski — are accused of illegally dumping petroleum-contaminated wastewater, concealing unsafe conditions and intimidating employees into keeping silent.
The defendants pleaded not guilty in the criminal federal trial that began in September.
In one of the most serious incidents, an employee, Alfred Coxe, was killed in March 2000 after being crushed by a forklift that prosecutors say had faulty brakes. Prosecutors say the company knew of the brake problem and attempted to cover it up after Coxe's death.
The company and employees would also remove safety equipment on machines, often to improve production, and then reinstall the safety features before an inspection by federal safety regulators, according to court records.
For example, prosecutors say in July 1999 Faubert told inspectors for the federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration that safety equipment on a saw had not been altered after an employee lost an eye and fractured his skull when the saw blade broke. But after the accident a wire screen was added to the shield, prosecutors said in the indictment.
The company has said that the forklift accident was a result of operator error. Defense lawyers also have maintained that the company has strong ties to the community and has made improvements, such as building its own water system, to alleviate what it has termed a few isolated environmental incidents and is a leading recycler of scrap metal.
Lawyers on both sides have been prohibited from talking to the media under terms of a gag order imposed by U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper.
Atlantic States employs 300 workers at the Phillipsburg facility, which manufactures iron pipe primarily used for underground water systems. It is a division of McWane Inc., a Birmingham, Ala.-based pipe manufacturer.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey began investigating Atlantic States after a nine-month investigation by The New York Times, PBS's "Frontline'' and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Comments? Click here to post a comment about this article