Bitter tensions boiled over after defense closings in the James Lomma crane collapse manslaughter trial today, with lawyers for the two victim families shouting, “Coward!” and “Disgusting!” as the accused killer crane magnate left a Manhattan courtroom.
Defense lawyer Andrew Lankler had just finished summing up Lomma’s contention that it was operator error, not a cheap crane replacement part from China, that caused the 2008 collapse on East 91st St.
“Disgusting!” civil lawyer Bernadette Panzella snarled at Lomma.
Panzella represents the family of crane operator Donald Leo, 30 who was horribly crushed to death when the faulty part cracked in two and his operator’s cab and the crane boom plummeted 140 feet to the ground.
“Cowards!” joined in civil lawyer Susan Karten, who represents the family of the collapse’s other victim, construction worker Ramadan Kurtaj, 27.
Lomma, who was leaving the courtroom with a group of supporters, smiled at the outburst, further fueling it.
“You think it’s funny that two people died?” Panzella asked, to which Lomma answered, “I’m laughing at you.”
Lankler and co-counsel Paul Schechtman are arguing that while the replacement part — a giant, ring-shaped metal bearing — was indeed of inferior manufacture and did crack in half, the real cause of the collapse was operator error.
Moments before the collapse, Leo reeled in the crane’s weighted hook so forcefully, that it crashed into the boom tip assembly, causing the already over-extended, nearly upright boom to teeter, Lankler told Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Daniel Convisor, who is presiding over the non-jury trial.
That teetering and rocking was what strained the bearing to the cracking point, the lawyer said, a conclusion he said was proven by weeks of defense expert, photographic and eyewitness testimony. The bearing had passed inspections and strength tests at that point, and would otherwise never have cracked, the lawyers argued.
“Mr. Lomma, New York Crane, were not aware of the risk that the crane would collapse,” Schechtman argued. “They have overcharged,” he said of prosecutors. “They have over-promised. They have over-sold.”
Assistant District Attorney Deborah Hickey sums up for prosecutrion tomorrow. She is expected to argue that Lomma knowingly installed a fatally inferior replacement bearing in his greed to keep the crane in operation.
The wealthy Lomma took a risk with his crane that he would never have taken with, say, his own $5 million private plane, Leo’s mother, Maria, told The Post. “Would he be cutting the same corners if this was a part for his jet?” the mother asked. “Instead, he played Russian Roulette with everyone’s life except his own.”