Bed-Stuy Contractor Charged With Teenager Construction Worker's Death, Prosecutors Say

BEDFORD STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — A Bed-Stuy contractor was hit with manslaughter charges for running an illegal construction site where a teenaged worker was crushed by a collapsing wall, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

Michael Weiss, 47, stands accused of forcing seven employees to work on a project they warned him was dangerous and failing to provide protective equipment at the unstable excavation site on Myrtle Avenue in Sept. 2015, prosecutors said.

Weiss — owner of RSBY NY Builders Inc. and Park Ave Builders Inc. — refused his workers the shoring and underpinning they begged for just hours before the wall collapsed, prosecutors said.

Fernando Vanegaz, 19 was killed when a wall collapsed on top of him, crushed his head and broke both his legs in a pit at the 656 Myrtle Avenue site on Sept. 3, according to prosecutors.

Two other workers were left with spinal injuries that required multiple surgeries, impeded their ability to walk, and still cause them pain, prosecutors said.

Weiss ordered his untrained team of workers to begin digging trenches at the excavation site in July — before he applied for a Department of Buildings permit, prosecutors said.

The DOB quickly received warnings about unsafe conditions that included unstable barriers and workers doing asbestos abatement work without protective masks.

Workers told Weiss that a wall adjacent to the site had cracked and begged him to hire more experienced workers and provide them with protective shoring — he refused, said prosecutors.

One worker pleaded with Weiss for materials to shore up the wall the morning it crumbled and even warned Weiss that a collapse was possible because they had dug six feet below the foundation of the unstable wall in an adjacent building, prosecutors said.

Weiss ordered the much-needed lumber, which arrived before the wall collapsed, but wouldn’t allow his workers to build shoring with it, said prosecutors.

Instead, he ordered all his employees to work faster and told Vanegaz and the two other employees injured in the collapse to climb into the excavated pit where they would soon be crushed, prosecutors said.

Weiss' response to the fatal accident was to apply for workers’ compensation insurance coverage, which he had failed to maintain in the months leading up to the accident, said prosecutors.

An engineer involved with the project attempted suicide days after the attack, but was rescued by NYPD officers.

Weiss was arraigned on a 14-count indictment that includes manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and a slew of fraud charges in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Wednesday, said prosecutors.

The fraud charges pertain to Weiss’ alleged tax fraud — prosecutors said he failed to report $75,000 in income on his state tax returns and thereby stole $7,996 from the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance.

Weiss, who faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, was held on a $250,000 bail and ordered to return to court on Aug. 9.

An unnamed co-conspirator — a fellow contractor that Weiss allegedly paid $10,000 to sign work permit applications and insurance certificates — is expected to be charged with reckless endangerment in the near future, according to prosecutors.

“Fernando Vanegaz should be alive today,” said Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez in an official statement.

“Construction site deaths such as his are becoming all too common as builders ignore safety protocols and hire untrained workers to maximize profits.”

Photo courtesy of @NYCityAlerts/Twitter.