In what ENR described as "six terse sentences," a State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan issued a not guilty verdict for crane owner James F. Lomma on all charges related to a 2008 tower-crane collapse that killed the crane operator and a construction worker.
"Judge Daniel Conviser declared Lomma not guilty of all six of the counts that included second degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment," ENR reported. In New York State, Supreme Court is a trial-level court in each county.
The New York Post, reporting the verdict, said Conviser reached it "based on two months of often complex engineering testimony in a non-jury trial."
The paper said that convict Lomma, the judge would have had to find "find that Lomma recklessly disregarded the risk of death in sending out to China for a cheap, quick-fix replacement bearing" for the crane.
