Roofing contractor pleads no longer guilty

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A domestic development contractor from Saco pleaded no longer responsible Monday to manslaughter costs within the loss of life of a worker who fell from a Portland roof in December.
Shawn D. Purvis, the 44-12 months-antique owner of Purvis Home Improvement in Scarborough, turned into indicted in April on one count of manslaughter and one matter of administrative center manslaughter in the demise of Alan Loignon, 30, in step with court docket records. Loignon and Purvis are 1/2-brothers and have the same father, Purvis stated formerly.

Police said Loignon fell from the third-tale roof of a domestic on Munjoy Hill approximately 11:30 a.M. On Dec. Thirteen, and died at Maine Medical Center a quick time later. He changed into now not wearing a safety harness.

Roofing

The case is probably only the second time prosecutors in Maine have sought costs under the place of job manslaughter statute, a subsection of manslaughter and incorporates the most penalty of five years in jail and a $five 000 nice.

The previous incident occurred in 1991 in York County. If Purvis is convicted at the manslaughter rate, a Class A legal, he faces as lots as 30 years in jail and a $50,000 exceptional.

Purvis will continue to be loose on non-public recognizance whilst expecting trial but will have to be booked and launched from the Cumberland County Jail before Friday.

His appearance earlier than Judge Thomas Warren in Cumberland County Unified Criminal Court lasted only some moments. Purvis spoke only to acknowledge the prices against him and go into his plea.

The state requested conditions of bail. However, through his attorney, Purvis agreed to 1 and reserved the proper to argue the others afterward.

Purvis agreed to turn over a listing of workers gift at task web sites that were active within the ultimate week and to list the area of upcoming process websites.

But Purvis’s attorney, Thomas Hallett, objected to other proposed conditions, including that Purvis reap and show he has worker’s reimbursement coverage and that he follow all regulations of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Hallett and Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin agreed to order arguments over the one’s conditions until a later date.

Under federal workplace safety laws, employers are required to offer protection device which includes fall harnesses or make inns to save you falls, including installing temporary handrails, while workers are at heights above a positive threshold.

But Purvis argued that he isn’t a company and rather hires impartial subcontractors. While he encourages people to use the enormous safety gear he presents, he can not force them to conform. Purvis stated he has battled OSHA for a dozen years over this point and has refused to pay them more or less $ forty-four,000 in fines the safety organization has tried to levy in opposition to him.

“Every single day, I show up on the task website… and I tell them, please, be safe, the entirety you need is right here,” Purvis said in a previous interview. “I can’t sit there 24/7 and watch subcontractors. It’s both they’re going to put on (the safety equipment) or they received’t. It’s like carrying a seat belt; it’s either you do it, or you don’t.”

He brought later: “I can deliver the entirety to be OSHA approved; however, I can’t take a seat there and watch those men all day lengthy. That’s their process. They’re self-hired.”

But the Maine Department of Labor and a roofing industry organization say Purvis is incorrect.

Under federal OSHA suggestions, any contractor whose work is exposed to a drop of greater than 6 toes in which there may be no guardrail is required to make certain employees use fall protection, whether using non-public safety harnesses, capture nets, or other fall-arresting systems.

The National Roofing Legal Resource Center also advises its participants that although they classify their employees as subcontractors, the character or entity that controls a job website is still accountable to ensure workers on the process observe guidelines.

The administrative center manslaughter statute has been an impact in Maine, considering Sept. 30, 1989. The first prosecution, in 1991, came about in York County while a grand jury indicted a New Hampshire contracting company about the demise of a 23-year-antique guy who was beaten at the same time as crews have been overhauling the Route 1 bridge among Portsmouth and Kittery in 1989, consistent with the Associated Press.