Contractor Facing Manslaughter Charges After Employee's Worksite Death

Salvatore Schirripa, owner of J & M Metro General Contracting Corp. and Metrotech Development Corp., has been arrested and charged with manslaughter after one of his employees fell to his death on a Coney Island worksite.

The worker, Vidal Sanchez-Ramon, allegedly fell backward from a sixth floor worksite while pouring the concrete floor. Sanchez-Ramon did not have the proper safety equipment he should have, including no harness and no safety rail.

Schirripa and his companies have been charged on an eight-count indictment including:

• Second-degree manslaughter
• Criminally negligent homicide
• Second degree reckless endangerment
• First-degree falsifying business records
• Offering a false instrument for filing
• Second-dgree criminal possession of a false instrument
• Violation of workers' compensation law
• Willful failure to pay contributions to unemployment insurance fund

Schirripa is currently being held on a $35,000 bail and scheduled to return to court September 7, 2016. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

The New York City Department of Buildings inspectors issued previous Notices of Violations for safety guardrail systems and handrails to Shirripa and his companies in 2011, 2013 and 2014.

(more on the manslaughter charges against the NY contractor...)