Prosecutors painted James Lomma, the head of New York Crane & Equipment Corp., as a man who passed on a crucial repair job on the faulty crane in favor of the bottom line.

Wreckage from Upper East Side Crane Collapse.

"They were killed because of one man's greed," said Manhattan District Attorney Eli Cherkasky in his opening statements inside a packed Manhattan Supreme Courtroom Tuesday, according to an Associated Press report.

Mr. Lomma is currently standing criminal trial for the 2008 crane collapse that took place on East 91st Street. The 200-foot crane was working on the 14th floor of a high rise residential development when the top part of the crane broke off. The debris then fell into the building and down below, crushing a sewer company worker, Ramadan Kurtaj, 27. The collapse also nearly beheaded Donald Leo, 30, who was in the crane's cab during the time of the accident. Both men died. A third construction worker, Simeon Alexis, was seriously injured.

In its 2010 indictment, prosecutors said Mr. Lomma, 66, and mechanic Tibor Varganyl used Chinese firm RTR Bearing to replace a cracked turntable on the crane, which allows the upper parts of the rig to swivel.

Mssrs. Lomma and Varganyl were told by two other companies that work on replacing the turntable would take at least seven months and $34,000. RTR Bearing pledged to come up with the part for nearly $20,000 in three months, prosecutors said at the time.

But even RTR Bearing had its doubts about the repair, sending an email that warned "we don't have confidence on this welding," prosecutors said.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. accused Lomma of wanting to speed up repairs to the 25-year-old crane to prevent losing roughly $50,000 in rental fees for leasing out the rig to other companies.

Mr. Varganyi, 65, plead guilty to criminally negligent homicide and is expected to be sentenced in April. He could possibly avoid jail time if he testifies against Mr. Lomma, The Associated Press reported.

"This five week trial will show that James Lomma had acted entirely responsibly, and the prosecution's opening statement was more fiction than fact," Paul Schechtman, one of Mr. Lomma's defense attorneys, told The Commercial Observer yesterday.

This crane accident happened two months after a separate crane collapse in Manhattan killed seven people.

Since 2008, the city Department of Buildings has implemented more than 25 new construction safety laws, created new inspectorial units, and increased training of its employees, said Tony Sclafani, a spokesman for the city agency.

"The Building Department has really clamped down on who is operating, who is responsible, who's got licenses, whether they're trained, I think there has been a vast tightening of the protocols for insuring greater compliance and the penalties for non-compliance, if there are any future incidences," said Barry LePatner, an authority on construction and founder of law firm LePatner & Associates who authored the books "Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets" and "Too Big to Fall."

The new mandates pushed forth by the Department of Buildings, which includes increasing the number of crane parts privy to inspection from 35 to 200, has lead to a 18 percent drop in construction accidents in 2011, added Mr. Sclafani.

"Stricter enforcement and increased industry outreach has created a greater result of safety throughout the industry," said Mr. Sclafani.

That's not to say crane accidents no longer occur in New York City.

Last week, a crane situated atop the 4 World Trade Center development was lifting a load of steel beams when its crane cable popped, sending the steel to fall 40 stories below and on top of a flatbed truck. A construction worker was slightly injured on the scene.

That accident is still under investigation, said Mr. Sclafani.

Drosen@observer.com

Agnes Dickinson, 59, was ordered to continue her up-to-13-year prison sentence at a Jan. 12 parole board hearing, according to the New York State Department of Corrections. She has been incarcerated at the Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan since 2008, shortly after being convicted of grand larceny, forgery and money laundering.

"After a review of the record and interview, the panel has determined that, if released at this time, there is a reasonable probability that you would not live and remain at liberty without again violating the law, and your release would be incompatible with the welfare of society," the parole ruling reads. 

The ruling concludes: "Your repeated actions over many years clearly indicate the danger you pose. Parole is denied."

Ms. Dickinson's next parole board hearing is scheduled for January 2014. Ms. Dickinson worked as a personal secretary for Mr. Roos at GVA Williams, where her job requirements included preparing checks to pay Mr. Roos¹s personal bills, according to the court records.

Now a vice chairman at Colliers International, Mr. Roos, 58, has completed over 30 million square feet of deals throughout a storied real estate career. Born into a prominent real estate family, the former professional photographer's clients include United Nations, the Xerox Corporation and the law firm Holland + Knight.

In 2006, however, Mr. Roos, while still with GVA Williams, received a call from his bank questioning him about a $16,000 check that had been passed in his name for car payments on a BMW that Mr. Roos did not own, prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney¹s office said at the time.

Mr. Roos filed a complaint with the Manhattan district attorney¹s office, leading to an investigation that showed Ms. Dickinson had embezzled more than $2.7 million from the well-known broker through hundreds of transactions between 1997 and 2006, according to court records.

Ms. Dickinson committed these crimes by forging Mr. Roos's name on his personal checks. She used most of the money to pay off credit card accounts belonging to her husband, her daughter and a friend, prosecutors said at the time.  She fabricated Mr. Roos's signature on personal checks from a Citigroup account in his name to pay off a debt worth $84,974.34 on her own American Express account, according to prosecutors.

In addition to the BMW payment, Ms. Dickinson also used the swindled cash to purchase designer clothes, plane tickets and, perhaps most egregiously, a house in West Palm Beach, Fla. The investigation also revealed that Ms. Dickinson had siphoned money from an estate belonging to Mr. Roos's deceased sister originally set aside for her nieces and nephews by transferring the cash from the estate into Mr.Roos's account and then using that stolen money for her own purposes.

She eventually pleaded guilty to multiple counts of grand larceny, forgery, money laundering and filing a false tax return in 2008. She was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay full restitution for her crimes.

"She was a trusted employee who violated our openness and kindness, and sadly had to suffer the consequences of her misdeeds," said Mr. Roos in a prepared statement issued to The Commercial Observer last week. "Her continued incarceration brings me no pleasure, but I have moved on."

Tanya Apparicio, formerly of the Manhattan District Attorney's Frauds Bureau who also prosecuted Ms. Dickinson's case, deferred comment to the Manhattan District Attorney's Press Office, which declined comment.

Staff writer Daniel Edward Rosen can be reached at drosen@observer.com