GOIN’ DOWN
DA: Three NYCHA bosses lied to cover missing elevator inspections – even after grisly death of elderly tenant
Three top managers of NYCHA’s elevator division regularly filed false reports claiming lifts had been inspected when they weren’t – even after a huge public outcry over the death of an elderly tenant in a horrific 2015 accident.
The administrators, each of whom pocketed six-figure salaries and helped oversee NYCHA’s 3,314 elevators, surrendered to authorities Wednesday to face dozens of felony counts for lying.
From 2014 through June 2018, Dertimes Graham, 49, Virgel Fincher, 51, and Alan Guadagno, 61, would somesign off on preventive mainteThe nance elevator inspections that hadn’t occurred, according to indictments unsealed by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.
Under pressure to meet goals for inspecting lifts, the trio lied on records 33 times during that time period, prosecutors alleged.
“The work orders were falsely padded in this way by the defendant(s) to help NYCHA meet certain elevator preventive maintenance benchmarks,” court records state.
Daily News in the last few years has documented how NYCHA workers — urged to close repair requests from public housing residents — have been pressured to forge tenant signatures and sign documents asserting that repairs were performed when they weren’t. The practice, workers have told The News, was fairly common.
The false elevator inspection reports were filed periodically even after Olegario Pabon died in a horrific elevator accident in the Millbrook Houses in the Bronx on Christmas Eve 2015.
The 84-year-old stepped into a lift that he didn’t know was malfunctionrick
ing — and it lurched upward and closed on Pabon’s leg and hand, then dropped him on his head.
At the time, DOI launched an investigation and found a tragic series of communication failures, along with evidence that someone had tampered with a braking device meant to slow the lift. They issued a damning report March 29, 2016.
The indictments unsealed Wednesday show the top NYCHA elevator managers didn’t appear terribly concerned about DOI’s disturbing findings in 2016.
Graham filed 15 false reports that June 21; Fincher filed eight bogus reports starting in July 2016, prosecutors charged.
The third administrator, Guadagno, didn’t file any bogus inspection reports that year, but allegedly started in late November 2017 and continued through the end of that year. He filed 10 in all, the indictment alleged.
In its 2016 report, DOI made 14 specific reform suggestions, including increasing oversight of all inspections. NYCHA agreed to comply, demoted the then-director of the elevator division, and sanctioned five of nine elevator unit staffers that DOI recommended for punishment.
None of the three elevator administrators charged Wednesday were among those sanctioned.
NYCHA spokeswoman Jasmine Blake said all elevators involved in the false reBuildings ports have been re-inspected by the city Department of and are up to date.
“The authority has cooperated fully with DOI’s investigation, including implementing their recommendations,” she said. "We’ve put new actions in place to ensure every elevator is properly inspected and that results are doublechecked, including improved brake monitoring procedures, broader staff training and more specific work order review by supervisors.” Fincher retired in September 2017 at a salary of $107,993; Guadagno retired in June at a salary of $107,993. Graham is currently employed at a salary of $109,614. Blake said the authority was determining what action to take regarding his employment status.
All three appeared briefly in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday and were released without having to post bail. They face one-and-a-third to four years behind bars for each of the 33 counts if convicted.