The boss of a mob-linked construction firm who allegedly ordered his hardhats to illegally remove the standpipe in the former Deutsche Bank building could be hit with a manslaughter indictment early next week, sources said yesterday.
Similar charges are expected to be leveled against at least one other official working at the site.
Firefighters Joseph Graffagnino, 33, and Robert Beddia, 53, were killed in an Aug. 17, 2007, blaze at the 130 Liberty St. site as they found themselves on the 17th floor with no water and trapped in a maze of blocked passageways.
Manhattan prosecutors told a grand jury that Mitch Alvo, an executive with the John Galt Corp., ignored basic safety regulations and had his workers cut the basement standpipe into pieces months before the fire.
Standpipes supply firefighters with water in high-rise buildings and cannot be removed even during demolitions.
Now, a grand jury will be asked to charge Alvo – who served as the Deutsche site’s director of abatement – in connection with the firefighters’ deaths.
He could face one of two murder counts. The more serious is reckless manslaughter, which applies when someone knows the potential danger of an action – in this case, cutting off the lone water supply – and ignores it.
The second is criminally negligent homicide.
In addition, site safety manager Jeffrey Melofchik is likely facing charges of criminally negligent homicide for failing to uncover the safety violations, according to several sources.
“I can’t to talk to you for a hundred reasons that you know well,” Alvo said outside his Freeport, LI, home yesterday. “It’s an active investigation.”
Originally, Alvo’s company Safeway Environmental Corp. was in charge of removing asbestos and World Trade Center dust from the site, but was taken off the job because of alleged mob links.
Alvo was granted a waiver to stay by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency in charge of the project.
Edward Little, Melofchik’s attorney, said his client broke no laws.
A third individual may also face a charge of criminally negligent homicide.
Meanwhile, another grand jury will review a slew of separate charges related to possible fraud – for millions of dollars – by the John Galt Corp. in connection with the job.
Individuals connected with the firm are suspected of arranging no-show jobs and creating shell companies, sources said.
Additional reporting by Kyle Murphy