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Harco Foreman Pleaded With Higher-Ups to Fire Subcontractor, Inspector Says

 Alfonso Prestia, 54, walks out of Manhattan Criminal Court with his lawyer, Jeffery Schwartz, (l-r) after being arraigned on manslaughter charges, Aug. 5, 2015.
Alfonso Prestia, 54, walks out of Manhattan Criminal Court with his lawyer, Jeffery Schwartz, (l-r) after being arraigned on manslaughter charges, Aug. 5, 2015.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

CIVIC CENTER — The construction superintendent charged in the death of a young worker at his Meatpacking District site tried to tell his superiors about a subcontractor's "flagrant disregard" for safety issues but they wouldn't listen, a witness testifying in the trial said Monday.

The witness, an engineer with Domani Inspection Services who was assigned as the special inspector at the site at 9-19 Ninth Ave., said that he observed safety issues at the site for months, and frequently spoke with Harco Construction superintendent Alfonso Prestia about them.

Harco and Prestia are on trial for the death of 22-year-old construction worker Carlos Moncayo. He was crushed to death on April 6, 2015 in an excavation pit at Prestia's site that had not been properly shored up.

According to an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's office and the city's Department of Investigation, Prestia and the subcontractor responsible for the excavation, Sky Materials employee Wilmer Cueva, had been warned about the unsafe conditions for months, along with higher-ups at Harco and Sky.

Harco's defense attorneys are arguing that Sky and Cueva are to blame for Moncayo's death.

Sky and Cueva are being tried separately and their trial has not yet begun.

The Domani inspector, Doodnaut Ramnarine, testified on Monday that not only did he warn Cueva and others at Sky Materials numerous times, and suggest to them more efficient and safer ways to do the excavation, but that Prestia "expressed to [Ramnarine] his frustration" that his bosses at Harco weren't listening to his warnings about Cueva's unsafe work practices.

"He said he has been trying to get Wilmer Cueva out of the job for his persistent and flagrant disregard for specific directions to improve his methods and that he has been unsuccessful with his superiors," Ramnarine recalled.

Ramnarine, who has experience with excavation as an engineer and in his previous job at the School Construction Authority, recognized that Cueva was facing a tricky process because of the mix of soil, sand and rocks at the site.

He recommended to Cueva that he construct a "shoring system" — essentially a box to hold up the walls of the pit — outside of the excavation, then place the box inside the pit "so that the workers don't have to go into the danger zone [and] when they go in they are inside the prefabricated box."

Harco and Prestia's defense attorney Ron Fischetti was visibly frustrated with Ramnarine when it came time to question him, often raising his voice, rolling his eyes, exhaling loudly and waving papers in the air.

He tried to hit Ramnarine on the fact that his daily reports to Domani did not include mention of the worker safety issues and that Ramnarine never contacted the Department of Buildings to report the problems.

Ramnarine replied that worker safety was not actually within the parameters of his role at the site, and that the warnings he gave to Prestia and Cueva were actually somewhat out of bounds.

"I feel that when I see something like this, I have to say something," he testified when being questioned by Assistant District Attorney Diana Florence earlier in the day.