A construction firm has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of a Queens father of five who fell 29 stories while working at a luxury high-rise tower near the South Street Seaport, the Daily News has learned.
SSC High Rise Inc. owned up to its role in the Maiden Lane tragedy that killed carpenter Juan Chonillo, 44, on Sept. 21, 2017, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
The subcontractor, which does concrete superstructure work, failed to properly train workers in the moving of scaffolding platforms at high levels, according to prosecutors.
The day Chonillo died, a foreman ordered one unit unhooked while five hardhats were still on the landing. The unit became jammed, and Chonillo plunged to his death when he unhooked his own harness more than two-dozen stories from street level to try to release the structure.
“He should not have died in that place, in that way,” his sister said in a family statement that Assistant District Attorney Rachana Pathak read in court Friday.
“There was negligence committed by the people in charge. I ask that the managers and the people in charge pay more attention to the workers so that cases like this do not keep happening,” she added.
The grieving relative stressed “that workers are human beings who have a family that await them at home at the end of the day.”
SSC High Rise also admitted to stealing more than $500,000 in overtime pay from 50 employees between August 2011 and September 2017. The company underreported about $2 million in payroll between March 2014 and November 2016, according to the DA.
SSC previously cut a deal in Manhattan Supreme Court and agreed to pay $842,000 in restitution, plus $10,000 in fines. The money will be returned to the cheated workers and to the New York State Insurance Fund.
An attorney for the company was in Manhattan Supreme Court Friday to finalize matters.
“SSC High Rise robbed half a million dollars from vulnerable workers, and then robbed Juan Chonillo of his life,” Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr. said in a statement. “It is unthinkable that after a preventable tragedy like the death of Chonillo – a father of five – the company faces a maximum penalty of just $10,000.”
Vance’s office and the Department of Investigation probed the conduct at the valuable real estate spot.
“Today’s disposition holds accountable this company that gambled with the lives of their workers,” DOI Commissioner Mark Peters said in a statement.
“SSC High Rise violated city building codes, allowing a construction platform to dangle precariously by a crane with no structural support and five employees on board — one who fell to his death.”
Peters called for “more severe penalties” for “companies whose illegal conduct directly causes terrible tragedies like the death of Juan Chonillo.”
