Nun’s alleged abuse draws man’s lawsuit
A cascade of falling debris killed one worker and seriously injured a second at a Queens demolition site Thursday — the same day new city rules on building facade safety went into effect.
First responders were called to the site at 147-05 94th Ave., near Sutphin Blvd. in Jamaica about 11:45 a.m., officials said.
David Johnson, 50, was declared dead at the scene. The second victim was rushed to Jamaica Hospital in serious condition, officials said.
“He was a good man,” said Johnson’s fiancée, Katrina Jeffery, 45.
“He has two daughters in college, which he worked to pay for,” Jeffery said.
Jeffery and her sister, Sue Doyle, 43, wondered what safety measures were in place at the demolition scene.
They sent those workers into an unsafe situation,” Doyle said. “We want to know what happened.”
Johnson and his co-workers were on the second floor of the structure when it collapsed. Firefighters needed to use ladder trucks to help bring the victims down to the main floor to a waiting ambulance.
“Any loss of life on a construction site is a tragedy, and our engineers and inspectors are already onsite conducting a thorough investigation,” Buildings Department Commissioner
Melanie La Rocca said. “We want to assure the families of the victims that we will hold all responsible parties accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
The three-story building was being demolished by general contractor Cole Partners Inc., buildings officials said.
Though a neighboring lot was the subject of a stop-work order, that did not affect the demolition job, officials said.
A woman who answered the phone at Cole Partners Thursday evening said no one was available to give a statement about the worker’s death, then hung up.
A safety supervisor working on a different project described the 94th Ave. site as an unsafe, non-union job.
“I knew him. He was in Local 79, but it was hard for him to get work,” Leslie White, a member of the same laborers’ union local, said of Johnson.
“He’s a good welder,” said White. “So, as they demo’d here, he would weld off this and weld off that, weld off the rebar. When you weld off the rebar, the concrete can fall down easier.”
White said on Wednesday he told Johnson — who friends said lived his whole life in Crown Heights, Brooklyn — “that thing is going to collapse.”
Johnson reassured him, White said.
“He was like, ‘We good, we good,’ ” White said. “But look what happened. These fatalities keep happening.”
Charles Pellegrino was just in second grade when he allegedly suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of his Catholic school teacher in Queens.
“He was really savagely beaten by this Sister Mary Jeremy — kicked in his groin and otherwise really injured,” his attorney Diane Paolicelli told the Daily News. “He had to leave the school.”
Earlier this week, he became the latest New Yorker to sue the Catholic Church thanks to the Child Victims Act, which opened a one-year window for survivors to seek justice even if the statute of limitations had already expired.
Pellegrino, 66, is suing the Diocese of Brooklyn and its Flushing-based St. Michael’s Catholic Academy in Queens Supreme Court for enabling Jeremy to savagely attack him.
“This poor child went through hell,” Paolicelli said of her client’s time at the academy, which came during the 19591960 school year.
“It was just brutal. He was just singled out. To him, it was just horrendous,” she added, saying Jeremy would hit Pellegrino in the head and groin in front of his classmates.
“The acts forced upon Plaintiff by Sister Mary Jeremy were aggressive and violent and were done for the purpose of degrading or abusing Plaintiff, and/or gratifying her own sexual desire,” the lawsuit states.
Pellegrino’s parents pulled him out of the school after a series of incidents. He’s “been able to move on with his life,” Paolicelli said, though the suit notes he “continues to suffer great physical and mental pain and anguish” and “loss of spirituality.”
Jeremy, who was a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph order, died in 2018, according to the diocese.
“This is the first time a claim against this person, at this school, has been made known to the Diocese of Brooklyn. We will investigate the allegations,” the diocese said in a statement.
Last year, Albany passed a law lengthening the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases and creating a “look-back” period for victims to sue. Under the old status quo, victims only had until their 23rd birthday to seek justice.