Foreman, other construction bosses charged in Brooklyn worker death

Prosecutors are holding a construction foreman, an engineer and a group of other defendants and companies responsible for the death last year of a worker on Brooklyn construction site who was crushed in a wall collapse — but they were let by a judge on Thursday due to bail reform.

Jiaxi “Jimmy” Liu and Wilson Garcia Jr., of Staten Island, and Paul Bailey of Pelham were arraigned on Thursday in Brooklyn Supreme Court for manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other charges for the September 2018 death of Luis Almonte Sanchez.

The 47-year-old was working on a crew performing demolition, excavation and foundation work at 714 39th Street in Sunset Park when he was killed.

At a news conference on Thursday, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said the defendants turned a blind eye to dangerous conditions at the site — and that Sanchez’s death was “tragic and preventable.”

“This is no mistake. This is not an accident what happened,” Gonzalez said. “This is a direct result of owner recklessness and neglect and the people who are in charge of this project were simply motivated by monetary reasons.”

Gonzalez made the aggressive move to charge “everyone who had a hand in this case” — two companies, WSC Group and Bailey’s Engineering, were also hit with manslaughter and negligent homicide charges.

A fourth defendant, Siu Wah Maria Cheung-Mui, was also charged with negligent homicide. Those four defendants, the companies and JiaRong “Tommy” Liu, who is Jiaxi Liu’s brother, were also charged with reckless endangerment.

A sixth defendant, Cindy Chai, was also charged with financial crimes related to the construction company, including tax and insurance fraud.

All of the defendants pleaded not guilty on Thursday before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun and were released without bail, though they were ordered to turn over their passports.

Prosecutors did not fight for a bail amount, citing the fact that they would be released at the start of next year anyway after bail reform laws take effect.

City officials say that Liu, the foreman at the sight, ignored repeated warnings from neighbors and his own workers that the conditions at the site were hazardous, including a neighbor who said that work at the site caused her patio and garage to cave in.

On Sept. 12, 2018, the warnings proved correct — a portion of an excavation support system and an existing masonry wall collapsed, burying Sanchez, who was struck by a section of the foundation that weighed that weighed up to 45,000 pounds.

Conditions at the site were so unstable that first responders were unable to pull Sanchez out of the rubble until the next day.

Defendants in the case are no strangers to city inspectors and law enforcement, officials said.

Department of Investigation Commissioner Margaret Garnett said on Thursday that Jiaxi Liu and Garcia, who is a former supervisory inspector for the city’s Department of Buildings, were previously convicted on criminal charges for their roles in a massive bribery scheme involving city employees and contractors.

Garnett said investigators also found “nearly identical” hazardous conditions at another construction site in 2017 and 2018 at 1759 Bay Ridge Parkway that was linked to some of the defendants. WSC Group failed to provide adequate support for excavation at the site and a worker was injured, she said.