Dear New Yorkers,
If you’re a longtime reader of THE CITY, you’ll remember the story of Luis Sánchez Almonte, the laborer killed by a wall cave-in at a Sunset Park construction site in 2018; the justice for his death, at first, was a mere $63,647 fine.
Now, in a rare criminal conviction tied to a workplace death, a Brooklyn judge has found contractor Jiaxi “Jimmy” Liu guilty of criminal negligent homicide in connection with Almonte’s death.
Liu faces a maximum prison sentence of 16 years. Wilson Garcia, the site’s foreperson, was also convicted of criminal mischief in the fourth degree.
It took authorities more than 28 hours in September 2018 to extract the remains of 47-year-old Almonte from under a hill of mud, bricks and debris after heavy rain from Hurricane Florence soaked the city.
Several months later, THE CITY began investigating, documenting safety warnings ignored by Liu, Garcia and other individuals responsible for the 39th Street excavation site. That story — about the fate of a brother and uncle laid to rest in his native Dominican Republic — was among the first published by our newsroom, in April 2019.
Read more here.
Some other items of note: - The City Council passed a slate of bills in an effort to prevent lithium-ion battery fires of the sort that caused 219 fires in 2022 and dozens more already this year. Some of the bills restrict what kinds of batteries are available for purchase. Others aim to improve outreach and education about the dangers of lithium-ion batteries and the proper use of e-mobility devices, commonly used by delivery workers.
- The racial gap in city jails has only gotten worse in recent years, according to a new report by John Jay College — despite recent high-profile criminal justice reforms. Black people were jailed in New York City at a rate 11.6 times higher than white people in 2021, more than double what it was five years earlier.
- Bronxites! The deadline to apply to your neighborhood’s community board has been extended to March 15. The borough has struggled to retain board members, as THE CITY previously reported. Read our guide on what serving is all about — and how to apply.
- See how New York City is doing with our newsroom’s economic recovery tracker.
- For the latest local numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations, testing rates and more, check our coronavirus tracker.
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