How did the criminal prosecution happen?
Within the OSHA Act, there is one clause that says if there is a willful violation of a rule and someone dies as a result of that willful violation, then it is a criminal violation. In such cases, OSHA turns that information over to the local U.S. attorney, and a local U.S. attorney can choose to bring criminal action or not. The problem with that is that it’s a misdemeanor. To willfully violate the law and kill someone is a misdemeanor under the OSHA Act — another example of how inadequate the OSHA Act currently is. A misdemeanor means the penalty is less than a year in jail? Less than a year in jail, less than $500,000 in fine. It’s a minor penalty. The most effective prosecutions of deaths are, in fact, not being taken by the federal government. They have been taken by state and local prosecutors under manslaughter charges at the local and state level, because the federal law is so weak. … But we found in this case — and we found in many cases — that, if you will, the economic