Powers Fasteners Pleads Not Guilty To Manslaughter
Powers Fasteners Pleads Not Guilty To Manslaughter
Jason Sandefur
Powers Fasteners pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in a Boston court.
The fastener supplier was the lone company to be charged for the 2006 fatal ceiling collapse in Boston’s Big Dig tunnel, despite a federal accident report that spread broad blame on several firms involved in design and construction of the tunnel system.
Calling the indictment “ridiculous” and “scandalous,” company president Jeffrey Powers accused Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley of using the family-owned business to persuade larger companies involved in the design and construction of the Big Dig to pay a multi-million dollar civil settlement, the Associated Press reports.
“Powers is an easy target,” Powers stated. “We are only a pawn in her chess game for the really big money.”
Jeff Powers reportedly attended the hearing with his three brothers and company attorneys.
With multi-million negotiations between the state and two large oversight firms on the Big Dig, Coakley has ruled out further indictments in the case. The two firms are reportedly hammering out details of a settlement in excess of $300 million.
Powers Fasteners, which supplied the epoxy blamed in the July 2006 collapse, reportedly offered $8 million to settle the case before the indictment was announced, but the “offer did not satisfy Coakley’s demand that any settlement be painful,” according to the Boston Globe. �2007 FastenerNews.com
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