2nd man acquitted in fatal ground zero fire (AP)

NEW YORK – A construction company safety supervisor was acquitted Wednesday of all criminal charges in a blaze that killed two firefighters at a condemned ground zero building, a verdict that marked the second acquittal in the manslaughter case.

Jurors cleared Jeffrey Melofchik a day after acquitting asbestos-cleanup foreman Salvatore DePaola of the same charges. A judge continued weighing the charges against a third man and a company as jurors spoke out about a trial they called a case of blaming a few for the mistakes of many surrounding the August 2007 fire at the former Deutsche Bank building. It was being dismantled in a complicated process designed to contain toxins.

"It was just a project with a lot of difficult things going on, and I didn't think anybody should be blamed for what happened," an elated but composed Melofchik, 49, said as he left court with his wife, Audrey, and other friends and relatives. Some had exclaimed "yes!" on hearing "not guilty" to the second of two manslaughter charges.

"It was a tragic event, and the fact that they ignored everybody else and just picked the three of us, I thought, was totally wrong," Melofchik said.

The blaze, which killed firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph P. Graffagnino, spotlighted poor oversight of the building, which had been damaged and contaminated in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Government agencies had missed inspections and failed to recognize dangers in the project's design.

Melofchik; DePaola, 56; and asbestos cleanup director Mitchel Alvo, 59, were the only people criminally charged in the fire. The John Galt Corp., which employed Alvo and DePaola, was the only company charged. The jury acquitted DePaola of all charges Tuesday.

"Everybody's a scapegoat," foreman Keith Spencer, a 41-year-old UPS worker, said as jurors left court Wednesday. "More people should have been accountable for this."

Alvo and the Galt company chose to have a judge decide the case against them; she has not said when she will rule.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said prosecutors respected the verdict and "hope that this prosecution brought necessary attention to the importance of safety in the construction and demolition industries."

A worker's careless smoking sparked the blaze, which tore through nine floors of the building. The firefighters died after being trapped in thick smoke and running out of air in their oxygen tanks.

Prosecutors said the critical factor in their deaths was a broken firefighting pipe, called a standpipe. Unable to use it, firefighters spent about an hour devising another way to get water on the flames on upper floors. In the meantime, the fire grew to deadly proportions, prosecutors said.

They said Alvo, DePaola and Melofchik knew the pipe had broken about eight months before. Under pressure not to let the cleanup lag, the men had the broken segment carted away and did nothing to repair or report it, prosecutors said. Nonetheless, Melofchik kept signing daily reports saying the building's fire-suppression system was working, according to evidence presented at the trial.

Defense lawyers said the men didn't realize the pipe's firefighting role and that the fire was fed by numerous hazards and regulators' mistakes.

Jurors said they weren't convinced that Alvo and Melofchik bore responsibility for the broken pipe, though they said they struggled more when deciding about Melofchik because of his safety-manager job. Ultimately, they felt it wasn't Alvo's job to identify and safeguard the standpipe, and testimony left questions about the extent of Melofchik's training in dealing with the pipe and whether he was aware of the break, jurors said.

And they came away from more than two months of testimony convinced that other problems had played too big a part in the deadly conditions to attribute the firefighters' deaths to the standpipe.

The project was supposed to be closely monitored by a list of government agencies. But it turned out that the Fire Department of New York hadn't inspected the building for more than a year, though it was required to do so every 15 days. Building, environmental and labor inspectors hadn't realized that firefighting would be complicated by some measures that had been undertaken to control toxins, including plywood stairwell barriers and a fan system that kept smoke in and pulled it down.

The stairwell barriers and, especially, the Fire Department's missed inspections made an impact on juror Rosemary Cardillo. "I felt as though, if they had come in and did their inspections, they would have been aware" of the problems before the fire, the retired real estate broker said.

To juror Lynette Cedeno, the case amounted to "blaming the little guy."

"Justice — it needs to start from the top, where people take responsibility for what their responsibility is, and not just pass it off," said Cedeno, 50, an occupational therapist who works for the city school system.

The city and Melofchik's employer, general contractor Bovis Lend Lease, acknowledged errors in dealing with the former bank building. The Fire Department created dozens of inspection and auditing jobs, and Bovis agreed to finance a $10 million memorial fund for slain firefighters' families, among other responses.

Then-District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said when the indictments were revealed that it would be pointless to try to prosecute the city because governments are generally immune from criminal prosecution, though individual officials and employees sometimes are charged with crimes.

Melofchik's lawyer, Edward J.M. Little, said he hoped the jury verdicts had sent prosecutors a message: "Because a case is sexy doesn't mean it should be brought."

"I think they've learned a lesson here," he said, but "it came at a terrible psychological cost for Jeff and his family."

Melofchik said he had been unable to work during the trial and had striven to keep the details from his sons, 16 and 18.

The last of the former bank building was taken down in February.

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Jennifer Peltz can be reached at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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1 acquitted in fatal ground zero fire (AP)

NEW YORK – An asbestos-cleanup foreman who said he was a scapegoat for inspectors' failures was acquitted Tuesday of manslaughter and all other charges stemming from a 2007 blaze that killed two firefighters at a ground zero bank tower. Two other construction-company supervisors were still awaiting verdicts in the sole criminal trial stemming from the blaze at the toxic, condemned building.

"I haven't slept in four years," Salvatore DePaola said, his eyes moist, as he left the courtroom after a nearly three-month trial stemming from the August 2007 fire at the former Deutsche Bank building.

After seven days of deliberations, jurors were still debating manslaughter and other charges against co-defendant Jeffrey Melofchik. A judge is weighing the charges against a third defendant, Mitchel Alvo, and the John Galt Co., which employed him and DePaola. The company and Alvo chose to forego the jury.

Sparked by a worker's careless smoking, the blaze revealed a slate of regulatory failures at the building, which was being taken down after being damaged and contaminated with toxic debris in the Sept. 11 attacks. Government agencies and a different company admitted mistakes, but no others were criminally charged.

"There are people who didn't do their jobs, and they should have been up here," said DePaola, pointing a finger at high-ranking Fire Department officials. The department was supposed to inspect the former bank building every 15 days but hadn't done so for more than a year before the blaze ripped through nine stories.

Firefighters Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph P. Graffagnino, 33, died after being trapped in black, choking smoke and running out of air in their oxygen tanks.

Prosecutors said the break in the firefighting pipe, called a standpipe, was the crucial factor in their deaths. With the standpipe useless, it took firefighters about an hour to get water on the flames, letting the blaze build into a lethal inferno, prosecutors said.

They said Alvo, DePaola and Melofchik knew the pipe had broken about eight months before, when workers took down some braces that were holding it to the basement ceiling. Melofchik, 49, was the project's site safety supervisor. Alvo, 59, was a toxin-cleanup director.

The supports were proving stubbornly hard to scrub of asbestos, and the bosses were under pressure to speed the cleanup to keep it from going over budget, prosecutors said.

So after the break, the men had a 42-foot section of standpipe cut up and carted away and did nothing to repair or flag it, though Melofchik continued to sign daily reports saying the building's fire-suppression system was working, prosecutors said.

"They did the thing that killed those firefighters," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann told jurors in a closing argument. "The evidence ... woven together, paints a mosaic of overwhelming guilt — that but for these wholly reckless acts, these firefighters would be alive today."

But defense lawyers said the men didn't recognize the pipe's importance. DePaola, who didn't testify, said Tuesday he had "no idea" it was a standpipe, as it looked like many other pipes in the basement.

"My job was to make sure everything in the area was clean," he said. "I had no jurisdiction over cutting pipes."

The fire was a product of a web of shortsighted regulating and hazards beyond the defendants' control, their lawyers said.

"It's a tragedy — two great firefighters died, but as we saw, and as jurors clearly saw, Sal wasn't responsible for that," said his lawyer, Rick J. Pasacreta.

While the Fire Department missed inspections, building, environmental and labor inspectors hadn't realized that some measures meant to contain toxins could thwart firefighting. Plywood stairwell barriers slowed firefighters' progress, and a fan system kept smoke in and pulled it down, instead of letting it rise and escape.

The city and Melofchik's employer, general contractor Bovis Lend Lease, acknowledged errors. In response, the Fire Department created dozens of inspection and auditing jobs, and Bovis agreed to finance a $10 million memorial fund for slain firefighters' families, among other responses.

Then-DA Robert Morgenthau said it would have been fruitless to try to prosecute the city because of a legal doctrine that generally makes governments immune from criminal prosecution, though individual officials and employees sometimes are charged with crimes.

To Graffagnino's father, the trial has fallen short from the start. Joseph A. Graffagnino considers the defendants small players in a series of fateful mistakes at the building and thinks government officials and Bovis should also have been prosecuted.

"Having this guy (DePaola) declared not guilty, it doesn't do anything for us. It doesn't do anything against us," said Graffagnino, whose family has not attended the trial. "We feel that it's a much bigger case."

A lawyer for Beddia's family didn't immediately return a call Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the building lingered for almost a decade as a grim reminder of the attacks. The last of it was finally removed in February.

If convicted, Alvo and Melofchik could face up to 15 years in prison, and the Galt company could face a $10,000 fine.

DePaola, 56, said he had been unable to work while the case played out; he, too, had faced the possibility of up to 15 years in prison. He said he now might open a deli, like the one he ran before getting into the asbestos-cleanup business.

"I think I'm going to get away from construction," he said, "because a lot of bad things can happen in construction."

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Jennifer Peltz can be reached at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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Ex-Tulsa cop convicted of corruption; 2 acquitted (AP)

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press Justin Juozapavicius, Associated Press – Fri Jun 10, 8:49 pm ET

TULSA, Okla. – A federal jury convicted a former Tulsa police officer Friday on charges he engaged in drug trafficking and stole federal money. The panel rejected prosecutors' claims that two current cops were part of a corruption ring that left a blemish on the city police department and led to the release of more than 30 defendants.

Current officers Nick DeBruin and Bruce Bonham hugged former officer Harold Wells before federal marshals led him away. Wells embraced his wife, who broke down in tears after he left the courtroom. A sentencing date was not immediately set.

Prosecutors alleged the three were part of a broader corruption plot, suggesting in an indictment last year that some officers operated without boundaries or fear of getting caught. According to the allegations, the officers stole money and drugs, conducted warrantless searches and fabricated evidence to win convictions.

During the trial, prosecutors showed video from an FBI sting that witnesses said appeared to capture the accused officers plotting to split up what they thought to be drug money at a Tulsa motel. The trial also included testimony from Eric Hill, a former police officer who was fired after an internal affairs probe revealed that he admitted to stealing money during a drug arrest.

Hill, who received immunity from prosecutors in exchange for his cooperation, testified that the three accused officers met after a May 2009 drug search and agreed to turn in money they'd pocketed because they were afraid they were FBI targets.

But Bonham and DeBruin said Bonham placed money in his pocket to see whether a dog trained to sniff out drugs would alight on him.

"I'm happy. What else can I say," DeBruin said after the verdicts were read. "I've gone through hell in the past year."

Bonham said Friday's verdict marked the first time he's felt relieved since he was indicted last year.

"I'd never been handcuffed before other than at the academy. It was the worst day of my life," Bonham said.

Wells, his lawyer and prosecutors did not comment.

Wells was convicted of possessing a firearm while trafficking in drugs; possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute; stealing federal money; conspiring to steal federal money; and using a telephone to further illegal drug sales. He was acquitted on five other counts.

Bonham faced five counts and DeBruin six.

Two other officers, Jeff Henderson and Bill Yelton, have been accused of similar crimes and will go to trial in July. Henderson faces 58 counts of distributing drugs, perjury and witness tampering; Yelton is accused of witness tampering, among other charges.

Since federal prosecutors began raising allegations that Tulsa had crooked cops, more than 30 people have had their convictions overturned or been released from prison based on the alleged false arrests. Several have filed lawsuits against the city.

Because the case involved the Tulsa law enforcement community, both the prosecutor and judge were brought in from out of state. U.S. Attorney Jane Duke of Little Rock, Ark., left the courtroom after the jurors returned their verdict. U.S. District Judge Bruce Black of New Mexico had to catch a plane home Friday afternoon, so local magistrate Paul Cleary accepted the verdict but didn't set a date for further proceedings involving Wells.

Johna Rountree, who would only identify herself as a family member of Wells, said Wells has spent nearly $100,000 to try to prove his innocence and that he was offered a deal by prosecutors but didn't take it "because he wanted to tell the truth."

Bill Lunn, a lawyer for Bonham, said prosecutors were never able to disparage the current officers' character.

"I think the people of Tulsa wanted to hear their side of the story," Lunn said. He said he expected the city police department to reinstate the officers to full duties. The two had been suspended without pay since their indictment.

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