Roofing contractor pleads no longer guilty
A domestic development contractor from Saco pleaded no longer responsible Monday to manslaughter costs for 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, was 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 at 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.
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; It incorporates the highest 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 much as 30 years in jail and a $50,000 exceptional.
Purvis will continue to be loose on non-public recognizance while expecting trial but must 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 a few moments. Purvis spoke only to acknowledge the charges against him and discuss his plea.
The state requested conditions of bail. However, Purvis agreed to 1 through his attorney and reserved the right to argue the others afterward.
Purvis agreed to turn over a list of workers’ gifts at task websites that were active within the last week and to list the area of upcoming process websites.
However, Purvis’s attorney, Thomas Hallett, objected to other proposed conditions, including that Purvis reap and show he has worker’s reimbursement coverage and follow all Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations.
Hallett and Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin agreed to order arguments over the one’s conditions until later.
Under federal workplace safety laws, employers are required to offer protection devices, such as fall harnesses, or make inns to prevent falls, including installing temporary handrails, while workers are at heights above a positive threshold.
However, 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 than $ forty-four 000 in fines the safety organization has tried to levy against 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. They’re either going to put on (the safety equipment), or they receive like carrying a seat belt; either you do it, or you don’t.”
Later, he said, “I can deliver the entirety to be OSHA approved; however, I can’t sit there and watch those men all day long. That’s their process. They’re self-hired.”
However, 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 over six 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 for ensuring workers on the process observe guidelines.
The Administrative Center manslaughter statute has impacted Maine since 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 had been overhauling the Route 1 bridge among Portsmouth and Kittery in 1989, consistent with the Associated Press.
