Pipe firm owner: Drop extra charges
Tampering alleged in fatal collapse
A Roslindale pipe company owner accused of manslaughter in the gruesome deaths of two crewmen buried alive in a Back Bay trench collapse is trying to get additional charges of evidence-tampering and witness intimidation tossed out.
A hearing on Atlantic Drain Service’s motion to dismiss is scheduled for March 29 in Suffolk Superior Court.
Although the motion does not impact the manslaughter charges, opposing documents filed by Assistant Suffolk District Attorneys Lynn Feigerbaum and Michael V. Glennon ensure an impassioned courtroom fight on behalf of victims Kelvin “Chuck” Mattocks, 53, a married father of six, and Robert Higgins, 47. The men were killed helping install a water and sewer pipe for a brownstone on Dartmouth Street. Prosecutors said they became helplessly anchored up to their waists in dirt, rocks and concrete and then drowned in an allegedly unshored hole Oct. 21, 2016, when underground materials supporting a hydrant gave way and the hydrant burst, flooding the trench.
Atlantic Drain owner Kevin Otto “ran a business that prioritized time and money over the safety of their own workers,” wrote Feigerbaum and Glennon, who allege the criminal defendants failed to arrange for proper cave-in protection while demanding the ill-fated laborers dig faster because the project was behind schedule and Atlantic Drain’s worksite permit was close to expiring.
Mattocks, they said, reported to work that day even though he was ill.
The motion to dismiss was filed by attorney Camille Sarrouf Jr., who argues prosecutors did not present the grand jury with sufficient evidence to return indictments for witness intimidation and evidence-tampering pertaining to documents sought by investigators the state claims Atlantic Drain forged and falsified “to limit its exposure to not only civil fines and infractions, but also ... to criminal charges as well.” The witness intimidation charge relates to a Department of Labor investigator Atlantic Drain is accused of misleading.
“At no point in nearly 600 pages of Grand Jury Transcripts is there any indication of fraud or deception on the part of ADSC in connection with any aspect of the joint investigation between the Department of Labor, the District Attorney’s Office, and their respective agents,” Sarrouf retorted in the motion to dismiss.
Prosecutors responded that the grand jury heard 14 days of testimony from 13 witnesses, examined nearly 100 exhibits and “received evidence establishing probable cause against the defendants on all charges.”