By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A construction supervisor was found not guilty Tuesday in the deaths of two firefighters who were killed battling a massive blaze at the former Deutsche Bank building.
Abatement crew foreman Salvatore DePaola was acquitted on all counts, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. He had faced 15 years in prison if convicted.
As the not guilty verdict was read after seven days of jury deliberations, DePaola patted tears with a tissue and embraced his attorney.
"Mr. DePaola, congratulations. You are free to go," Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Rena Uviller said. The jury is still deliberating the fate of Jeffrey Melofchik, a site safety manager for the site's general contractor.
After the verdict, a relieved DePaola told reporters the acquittal was the end of a long and trying experience.
"I can go home and sleep tonight. I haven't slept in four years," he said, adding, "My heart goes out to the Graffagnino and Beddia families."
In the hallway, he hugged one female juror on the panel who was also red-eyed and emotional.
At a Community Board 1 meeting Tuesday evening, chair Julie Menin said the verdict was "very surprising."
"The community board opposed the hiring of John Galt. We had grave concerns," she said.
Pat Moore, a board member who's lived on Ceder Street near the former Deutsche Bank building for 35 years was shocked by the verdict.
"I can't believe it," she said. "Somebody's guilty. Somebody's at fault."
Since the indictment of DePaola and two of his supervisors in December 2008, prosecutors have been criticized for failing to hold any of the government inspectors and agencies who regularly checked the site criminally accountable.
Attorneys for the workers, including Rick Pasacreta who defended DePaola, 56, have always maintained the site workers were "scapegoats," indicted as dozens of government and FDNY inspectors were absolved of criminal liability.
DePaola, a John Galt Corp. foreman, Melofchik, the site safety manager for general contractor Bovis Lend Lease, and Alvo, the abatement supervisor Galt, cut a 42-foot piece of standpipe from the basement where workers labored daily to remove asbestos contaminated soot.
He and the others were accused of taking down a 42-foot piece of standpipe that supplied emergency water to the building during asbestos abatement at the skyscraper, which was heavily damaged on 9/11.
DePaola said Tuesday that he was a low-level worker on the 130 Liberty Street project, one small step above the laborers, and was in no position to be making important calls.
As one of seven abatement supervisors in the building, he was in no way responsible, he said, for cheking on fire safety regulations and did not believe that what they cut was a standpipe because it was not bright red as standpipes usually are.
"Anything red we all knew not to cut, but this pipe was black like 5,000 other pipes in that basement," he said.
While he and the others on trial were not the right ones to hold accountable, others should have been blamed, he suggested.
"There are people who did not do their job — they should have been here," said DePaola, whose own son is a firefighter in a Staten Island company.
"Something horrible happened. Two firefighters died — but Sal was not responsible," his lawyer added.
Prosecutors argued the cutting of the water pipe, in the basement, was the sole cause of the firefighters' death. It took more than an hour for the FDNY to get water on the fire on the 14th floor during the August 2007 blaze.
At trial, lawyers for the men argued a "perfect storm" of contributing factors at the hazard-ridden demolition site made the raging fire unmanageable.
The fire department's own inspectors were responsible for checking that standpipes are working at construction and demolition sites, they argued.
While deliberations are set to continue in the case against Melofcick, Alvo opted for a bench trial. So did the John Galt Corp., the abatement firm, which was charged as an entity and may be fined if convicted.
Julie Shapiro contributed reporting.
