WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2005

D.A. BROWN: 18-COUNT INDICTMENT CHARGES OWNER OF QUEENS CARTING COMPANY WITH FALSE IMPRISONMENT AND ASSAULT ON UNION WORKERS
Also Charged with Filing False License Application with City Agency

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, joined by New York City Business Integrity Commissioner Thomas McCormack, today announced that the owner of a Maspeth carting company has been indicted on charges of falsely imprisoning and assaulting two union organizers who had been posing as day laborers in an effort to expose allegedly corrupt practices by locking them in the company’s truck yard last July and inciting mob violence. The company has also been named in the indictment and charged with presenting a fraudulent carting license application to the New York City Business Integrity Commission.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant is accused of creating a potentially dangerous situation by physically restraining two union workers and exposing them to risk of serious physical injury by inciting a mob of his workers to beat them. Hopefully, the charges in this case will send a clear signal that prosecutors and the City’s Business Integrity Commission are working together to deter wrongdoing of this kind.”

Business Integrity Commission Chairman McCormack said, “This investigation demonstrates that the Commission's role as regulator does not end with the issuance of a license. The Commission vigorously investigates allegations of criminal activity by licensees to ensure that the trade waste industry is free from corruption. As the result of today’s indictment, the Commission will commence an administrative action to revoke K&R Construction Removal Inc.'s license. I thank District Attorney Brown and the staff of the Queens County District Attorney's Office Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau for their fine work and swift action in securing this indictment and for their continuing cooperation with the Business Integrity Commission. I also want to thank the New York City Police Department’s Organized Crime Investigations Division and the Department of Sanitation for their assistance in this investigation.”

The District Attorney identified the defendants as Steven Russell, of 446 Cedarhurst Avenue, Cedarhurst, NY, and K & R Construction Removal, Inc., located at 52-01 Flushing Avenue in Maspeth. The defendant Russell has been variously charged in a 18-count indictment with Robbery in the Second and Third Degrees, False Imprisonment in the First Degree, Assault in the Third Degree, Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, Falsifying Business Records in the Second Degree and Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree. K & R Construction Removal, Inc. has been charged with the crimes of Offering a False Instrument for Filing and Falsifying Business Records. If convicted, the defendant Russell faces up to 15 years in prison. The corporation can be fined up to $10,000.

According to the charges, in events leading up to the July 22, 2005 incident, organizers for Local 79 of the Laborers’ Union, working under the umbrella of the Laborers’ Eastern Region Organizing Fund, focused their attention on a construction and demolition job being performed by defendant Russell and his company at the former Board of Education’s headquarters at 110 Livingston Street in Brooklyn. Defendant Russell and his company were reportedly using non-union workers to conduct demolition and to cart away the debris in order to convert the building into private condominium-type residences. Workers at the site claimed they were being paid $10 an hour for 10 hour days with no benefits. Union workers are paid $48 per hour for similar labor and receive healthcare, overtime and other benefits.

District Attorney Brown said that it is alleged that at the behest of Local 79, union laborers Otto Montenegro and Luis Cuanoquiza went undercover as day laborers to expose Russell’s alleged corrupt business practices, namely, the payment of low wages, the non-reporting of workers for the purposes of not paying taxes and the absence of safety precautions such as masks for laborers working with asbestos. When the men reported a lack of proper safety procedures concerning asbestos removal at the site to their union boss, it was immediately reported to the City’s Department of Environmental Protection which temporarily closed the site. When work resumed, Montenegro and Cuanoquiza were not asked to return.

The District Attorney said that the indictment alleges that when Montenegro and Cuanoquiza went to K& R’s truck yard to collect their wages on the evening of July 22, 2005, the defendant Russell and unapprehended others restrained the two men by ordering that the 25-foot high steel gate surrounding his business be shut and locked. There were allegedly more than 50 other workers also present in the yard at the time. The defendant then allegedly ordered workers to bring the two men to him where they were searched. When a hidden tape recorder was found on Montenegro’s person, the defendant allegedly grabbed the recorder and smashed it and then shoved Montenegro against a garbage truck and beat him about the head and body with his hands and poked him in the eyes. Cuanoquiza was allegedly also similarly attacked. Both men suffered bruising, swelling, lacerations and substantial pain. The defendant also is alleged to have incited his other day labor employees to also hit the two men (which they allegedly did) by stating that Montenegro and Cuanoquiza were union spies sent to shut the work-site down and take their jobs away.

The indictment further charges that between September 14 and 16, 2004, the defendant Russell acting in concert with unapprehended others, conspired to file a falsified Construction and Demolition hauling or “carting license” with the Business Integrity Commission by failing to disclose on the license application that he was a true principal and owner of the company, that he had a prior criminal conviction and that the company would be removing hazardous waste.

The Business Integrity Commission was formerly known as the New York City Trade Waste Commission which was created by Local Law 42 in 1996 to regulate the commercial waste hauling industry through licensing and registration of businesses that remove trade waste from commercial establishments throughout the city. One of its primary goals is to foster competition in the commercial carting industry by eliminating companies engaging in corrupt and anti-competitive practices.

District Attorney Brown noted that although the Livingston Street building had formerly belonged to the New York City Board of Education, it had been bought by a private company for conversion into private condominium-type residences. Since the construction/demolition did not involve a “public works” or government project, the prevailing wage law did not apply.

The investigation was conducted by Detective Al Schwartz, Sergeant Michael Gerard and Lieutenant Gerald Pope under the overall supervision of Captain Alex Schapowal of the Organized Crime Investigations Divisions of the New York City Police Department. Also aiding in the joint investigation were Business Integrity Commission/Department of Sanitation Police Lieutenant Thomas O'Brien, Business Integrity Commission Director of Audits Cecilia Chien and Business Integrity Commission Director of Regulatory Enforcement Ellen Ryan under the overall supervision of Ronald Cohen, Assistant Commissioner for Investigations and Enforcement.

Assistant District Attorney Catherine C. Kane of the District Attorney’s Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Gerard A. Brave, Bureau Chief, and Marc P. Resnick, Deputy Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Linda M. Cantoni.

It should be noted that an indictment is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.