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City Inspector Is Charged in Crane Case

March 20, 2008

A Buildings Department inspector, Edward J. Marquette, has been arrested and charged with lying to New York City authorities about inspecting the crane that collapsed on Saturday afternoon, killing seven people, injuring dozens of others and causing widespread property damage. Officials issued a stern warning that corrupt workers will be punished, but said the failure to inspect the crane on March 4 was almost certainly not a factor in the deadly collapse, which officials think may have been caused by the failure of a nylon strap, which led to a large steel collar coming loose.

Rose Gill Hearn, the commissioner of the Department of Investigation, announced the arrest at a news conference shortly after 3 p.m. near the site of the collapse, at Second Avenue and East 51st Street in the Turtle Bay section of East Midtown, as officials gave an update on the effort to repair the damage and allow people back in to 18 buildings that had to be evacuated.

According to Ms. Hearn, a call to 311 was made on March 3 reporting concerns about the stability of the crane. In response, Mr. Marquette claimed to have inspected the crane the following day. “Marquette made false statements on his route sheet indicating that he had inspected the crane, when in fact he had admitted to D.O.I. that he did not inspect the crane on March 4,” she said.

Officials emphasized that Mr. Marquette’s failure to inspect the crane was likely not a factor in the collapse of the crane on March 15, which occurred as operators were preparing to “jump,” or extend, the crane.

“With regard to the crane accident itself, it is highly unlikely that a March 4 inspection would have prevented the horrific accident that happened on March 15, which we are still looking at the probable cause being mechanical failure or human failure during the ‘jumping’ operations when the crane was raised,” said Patricia J. Lancaster, the commissioner of the Department of Buildings. The lack of an inspection, indeed, was probably not even “remotely associated” with the collapse, she said.

Indeed, the crane had been inspected several times before the March 15 collapse — most recently on March 14, the eve of the collapse, when no violations were found. Some equipment that was needed for extending the crane on March 15 had not even arrived at the work site by March 4, Ms. Lancaster said.

Ms. Hearn, whose department investigates allegations of misconduct by city workers, noted, “The investigation is ongoing and will take time,” She added, “We thought it was important to file charges on this discrete issue, to assure that this accident is being thoroughly investigated for any criminal charges but also, from the city’s perspective, to determine if D.O.B. followed all proper procedures.”

Mr. Marquette was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on one count of falsifying business records in the first degree and one count of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree, both felonies that can be punished by up to four years in prison. Mr. Marquette did not speak or enter a plea and he was released until his next court date, April 10, at the request of his lawyer, Kate A. Mogulescu of the Legal Aid Society.

Mr. Marquette, dressed in saggy blue workpants and black work boots and with several days’ growth of beard, declined to speak to reporters after the hearing, dashing several blocks surrounded by friends with photographers and reporters in pursuit.

Prosecutors said that Mr. Marquette made entries on a Buildings Department inspector’s route sheet indicating that on March 4 he had inspected a crane at a construction site at 301 East 51st Street. But when Mr. Marquette was interviewed by investigators on March 19, he admitted that in fact he had failed to make the inspection, according to the criminal complained filed by the office of Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney.

A law enforcement official said that investigators believed Mr. Marquette had in fact been on the job conducting inspections that day, but that he was not where he said he was. The investigation into where he was and why he falsified the record is continuing, the official said.

Ms. Lancaster, whose department has been widely criticized since the accident for not having enough inspectors to handle the city’s construction boom, spoke in blunt terms about her determination to root out corruption.

“Today I suspended Marquette,” she said. “We will not tolerate this kind of behavior at the Department of Buildings. Since September 2002 we have been working closely with D.O.I. in an anticorruption program by issuing the first-ever code of conduct for the agency.”

Ms. Lancaster said her department has a “zero-tolerance policy on corruption,” and added, “I do not and will not tolerate any misconduct in my department.” She said:

In light of this episode, I’ve done the following: I’ve ordered reinspections of 100 percent of Marquette’s inspections over the last six months, I’ve requested the Department of Investigation to do a full audit of Marquette’s inspection reports. I’ve requested the Department of Investigation to do a full audit of the entire cranes and derricks unit. I’ve redistributed the code of conduct to our entire agency and I’ve also launched a full operational review of the cranes and derricks unit and ordered that associated applications and paperwork be made available on the Web so that they are apparent to the public.

City personnel records indicate that as of last year, Mr. Marquette, 46, was paid $47,326 a year.

Joseph F. Bruno, the commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management, joined Ms. Hearn and Ms. Lancaster at the news conference to give an update on the efforts to repair property damage and assist displaced residents.

Mr. Bruno said that nine of the 18 evacuated buildings have been reopened, including a large apartment building at 311 East 50th Street.

Among the properties that remain closed pending repair of structural damage are: 306 and 308 East 50th Street; 301 East 50th Street, which was near the brick house that was demolished; 954 Second Avenue; 300-304 East 51st Street, the building upon which the body of the crane rested after the top sheared off; and 301 and 311 East 51st Street.

Some city officials said they were shocked by the news of the arrest.

“I am beyond outraged,” Councilwoman Jessica S. Lappin, a Manhattan Democrat who lives on East 55th Street and whose district includes the area of the accident, said in a phone interview. “Somebody called 311 because they thought something was wrong. If the charges were true and the inspector didn’t even inspect the site, how are we supposed to have faith in our public servants and in the D.O.B. inspectors? We don’t know what this inspector would have seen, and seven lives were lost in this tragedy.”

Source: NY Times

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