When construction contractor Michael Conway was charged last year with criminally negligent homicide in the death of immigrant construction worker Jose Vega, it was the first time in Westchester County that an employer was held criminally responsible for the death of a worker.
Labor organizations and workplace safety agencies celebrated the news and saw Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah’s charges as the first step in reigning in unscrupulous contractors who put worker’s safety at risk.
Earlier this month, however, the new Westchester County District Attorney, Susan Cacace, announced she would reverse Rocah’s decision, leaving labor organizations and community groups feeling betrayed.
On Feb. 7, Cacace revealed she would drop the criminally negligent homicide charge against Conway, and in exchange for his guilty plea, he would be charged with only one count of reckless endangerment in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor.
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Following Cacace’s announcement, labor organizations and community groups are holding a press conference on Feb. 28 in Mamaroneck, New York, to demand justice for Vega and stronger legal protections for construction workers.
In 2021, Vega was killed while he and another worker were ordered to dig a 9-foot-deep trench in Mamaroneck, New York. Despite not having the proper safety equipment needed to prevent cave-ins, Vega was sent into the trench by his boss, Conway. Afterward, the trench caved in on Vega, crushing him to death.
After a 3-year investigation led by then-DA Rocah, Vega’s death made history when a Westchester County grand jury indicted Conway, charging him with criminally negligent homicide (a felony) and two counts of reckless endangerment in the second degree (misdemeanors). If convicted of the negligent homicide charge, Conway faced the possibility of a 4-year prison stint.
In a statement to Documented at the time, Richard Mendelson, the regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, welcomed the news. “The addition of this criminal enforcement effort by the District Attorney sends an even stronger message that high-hazard industries, such as excavation, must follow safety standards,” he said.
When news broke on Feb. 7 that Cacace was dropping the homicide charge against Conway, labor leaders in Westchester were outraged, believing that Cacace was letting a criminal contractor off the hook. Instead of jail time, Conway’s plea agreement with Cacace will now result in him only being given a 1-year conditional discharge and being ordered to perform 150 hours of community service.
“We found it to be unacceptable,” said Gonzalo Cruz, an organizer for Community Resource Center, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting immigrants in Westchester. “That decision is really bad for our community and working people because the company will get away with doing nothing for workers.”
Also Read: Contractor Still Operates Despite Stealing Thousands in Wages From Immigrant Workers
Cruz hoped that the conviction of Conway would send a message to other contractors to take workplace safety seriously. But now he says he’s upset about the terms of the plea agreement, feeling it would send out the opposite message to the industry.
“All he gets is community service? That’s all he gets for the life of a worker? It’s really bad for our people, the Latino people who mostly work in construction,” he said. “We don’t have strong laws for bad contractors, and we need something more than a slap on the wrist.”
Construction worker deaths in New York have been on a steady rise, with a New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health report finding that 86% percent of construction deaths in the state occur at non-union work sites. The vast majority of those killed are disproportionately immigrant workers.
Louie Sanchez, a business representative of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3, was also taken aback about the outcome of the case.
“We are talking about criminal homicide here, how does it turn into 150 hours of community service?” he said.
Sanchez said he has been meeting with the DA’s office for the past two weeks trying to understand why Cacace did not take the case to trial. So far, he has not been satisfied with what he’s been hearing.
“I expressed our concerns,” he said. “As the labor community, we’ve been fighting to hold these developers accountable. Too many people are dying on these projects, but I wasn’t happy with her answer. She said something like, ‘I can’t make everyone happy.’ ” Sanchez called her response “unacceptable.”
In a statement, Cacace told Documented that her decision to seek out lesser chargers was motivated in part by conversations with Vega’s family, whom she claimed supported the decision.
“This guilty plea provides closure for this immensely painful chapter in their lives and sends a message to the construction industry that cutting corners on worker safety will have criminal consequences,” she said in the statement. “Our office had to balance the potential outcomes of a trial against the evidence available in this case. In the end, we reached a resolution, supported by the family, that provides accountability for Mr. Conway’s reckless conduct.”
In an unrelated civil case in September 2024, Vega’s family was awarded $2.3 million in their lawsuit against Lecher Development, LLC, and Mickels Landscaping, Inc., the contractor and subcontractor.
Documented was unable to reach Vega’s family for comment, but in a joint statement from the family shared exclusively with Documented by the D.A.’s office, they expressed their satisfaction with the outcome of the case.
“This is a tragic and painful time for our family,” they wrote. “We miss Jose dearly. We understand there is a court process that has to play out, and we are grateful for the prosecutors who helped bring this case to its conclusion. Michael Conway is a guilty man. It is our hope he will assist the construction industry with workplace safety and help workers be safe on future worksites. We ask that the media continue to respect our privacy as we mourn Jose’s loss.”
Sanchez, who is helping to organize Friday’s event for Vega, hopes others will see workers will not be helpless victims.
“It sets a precedent,” he said. “The building trades are not happy. Jose Vega wasn’t our member, but it could be one of our members tomorrow.”
Correction February 28, 2025 : An earlier version of this story misidentified the workplace of Gonzalo Cruz, which is Community Resource Center, not Don Bosco.
