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September 5, 2007

Update: Firm pleads not guilty in Big Dig death

BOSTON — The company that provided the epoxy blamed in the fatal Big Dig tunnel collapse pleaded not guilty to a manslaughter charge today.

Powers Fasteners Inc., based in Brewster, N.Y., was indicted by a grand jury last month in the July 2006 death of Milena Del Valle. Del Valle was killed when 26 tons of concrete panels crashed onto her car as she and her husband drove through the westbound Interstate 90 tunnel.

Prosecutors said Powers Fasteners knew the type of epoxy it sold for the Big Dig project was unsuitable for the heavy ceiling panels it would have to hold, but never told project managers.

The four brothers who run the company and about a dozen employees attended the arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court. Their lawyer entered the plea in court.

If convicted, Powers Fasteners faces a maximum fine of $1,000, the maximum penalty for a company charged with manslaughter in Massachusetts.

The indictment comes after more than a year of investigations by state and federal agencies. The charge does not directly affect a separate wrongful death lawsuit that Del Valle’s husband and daughter filed against Powers, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and eight other companies.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Brandie Jefferson  at 10:17 AM | Permalink

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