A contractor who allegedly ignored warnings that a retaining wall could collapse at a Poughkeepsie construction site has been charged with willful violation of safety rules in the death of a worker who was crushed by the wall.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams charged Finbar O’Neill and Onekey LLC of Hackansack, New Jersey, with a criminal misdemeanor for violation of U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules, July 29 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
“The site superintendent advised O’Neill … that the wall as constructed could collapse and kill someone,” the prosecutor charged. “O’Neill responded that he did not care.”
O’Neill did not reply to an email asking for his side of the story.
The accident happened in August 2017 at the former A.C. Dutton Lumber Co. in Poughkeepsie. Onekey, the owner and developer of the site, was in the process of building 300 apartments in a group of buildings at One Dutchess Avenue next to the Hudson River.
O’Neill’s wife, Paula, is CEO of OneKey, according to her LinkedIn profile, and the nominal owner, according to the criminal charges. The prosecution claims that Finbar O’Neill controlled the company and the conditions at the construction site.
An engineering firm prepared a plan to compact the soil in three areas where structures were to be built, identified as Buildings B, C and D. The dirt piles would be sloped downward to the edges at a 45-degree angle. After the soil was compacted at the B and C sites, the material would be moved to the D site.
O’Neill decided that construction would begin on Buildings B and C while dirt was still piled about 15 feet high at Building D.
O’Neill allegedly ordered workers to cut into the D site slope and build a temporary, concrete block wall to hold back tons of dirt so work could be done at the B and C sites.
The wall was not designed by an engineer, the prosecutor says, and if the D site slope had been kept in accordance with the engineer’s plans, workers could not have begun work on the B and C buildings.
As construction began on the B and C buildings, dirt was added to the D site and machinery was driven on top of the pile.
“Multiple individuals working on the site informed agents of Onekey and Finbar O’Neill,” the prosecutor charges, “that the wall was unsafe.”
An OSHA rule requires structures that support construction loads to be approved by a qualified designer. Contractors are also required to control or eliminate hazards and tell employees how to recognize and avoid unsafe conditions.
O’Neill allegedly knew the wall was unsafe and failed to correct the hazard or tell workers how to avoid it.
On Aug. 3, 2017, as Maximiliano Saban was installing rebar, the retaining wall collapsed and crushed him and injured another worker. Both were employed by a subcontractor, New Generations Masonry, of Hartford, Connecticut.
OSHA concluded in 2018 that the wall was not designed or approved by a registered engineer and imposed a $281,583 fine on Onekey.
The new case does not say why O’Neill, 57, and Onekey are being accused five years after the death of a criminal misdemeanor. An employer convicted for willful violation of OSHA rules can be fined or imprisoned.
This is not O’Neill’s first run in with the law. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to making unlawful payments to labor representatives and was sentenced to five years of probation.
The case was part of a racketeering scheme by officials of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners that allowed contractors to hire non-union workers, pay union members at below-union rates, and avoid payments to union benefit funds.
