Scathing Report Faults Rockland DA In 2012 Gas Explosion Case

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — After a natural gas explosion in 2012 in West Haverstraw, a Westchester contractor pleaded guilty to felony reckless endangerment.

It was after Fidel Padilla entered his plea that he found out that the mistake wasn't his company's. O&R had marked the gas line wrong, and state regulatory officials had cited the utility company for that the week before.

That citation hadn't been mentioned by Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe, according to a new report from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers about the "trial penalty" and the misuse of plea deals. As of 2019, 96 percent of felony convictions in New York were resolved by plea, a proportion that has only increased in the last 30 years, the group said.

Padilla's case exemplifies the imbalance of power that persists in New York's criminal legal system, Susan Walsh, NYSACDL Trial Penalty Project Chair, told Patch. "Prosecutors coerced Mr. Padilla to take a plea or risk not only conviction but deportation, before revealing evidence to the defendant showing he was not at fault for the allegations.

"Not all accidents are crimes. Fortunately, the judge rightly dismissed the charges, but many accused individuals are not as lucky. Aggressive prosecution, overcriminalization and the coercive dependence on pleas has deteriorated the system in our state for decades," she said. "As our report outlines, lawmakers and prosecutors must make significant policy changes to ensure criminal defendants can always exercise their constitutional rights without the fear of extortionate repercussions."

Padilla had been hired by a subcontractor to install a two-inch conduit at the Fairgrounds II condominium complex in the Village of West Haverstraw, just off Route 9W. The conduit was for the installation of Verizon Fios fiberoptic cable.

Over several days, the conduit was installed throughout much of the complex without incident. On Jan. 16, at about 12:15 p.m., the contractor excavated under Zariello Lane and struck an Orange and Rockland Utilities gas main. This in turn triggered a gas leak and explosion that destroyed the condo unit at 52 Zariello Lane and seriously damaged several other nearby homes. No one was home at the time; however, West Haverstraw volunteer firefighters who were in the process of evacuating the neighborhood were blown off their feet by the blast – along with two Orange and Rockland workers who were there.

Padilla, who owned the excavating company, said he had contacted the utility companies to allow them to go to the property first and mark the location of gas and electric lines before they began digging. Padilla waited several days and only dug in areas without markers, according to the new report.

After the explosion, the DA threatened to file charges that could result in Padilla's deportation if he did not plead guilty, the report alleges. Padilla did so, but filed a motion to withdraw his plea after learning that the state agency overseeing utilities had cited the gas company for marking the wrong spot. Though the citation was issued a week before Padilla entered his guilty plea, the prosecutor didn’t share information, the report said.

Two years later, the Rockland Supreme Court threw out the case against Padilla and dismissed the charges. In the decision, the judge homed in on other mistakes he said the prosecutors made and then tried to gloss over. The prosecutors disregarded essential criminal procedures (Padilla was never charged or arraigned or indicted), mischaracterized the guilty plea as a deal, and didn't translate any documents, including the ones he signed, into Spanish for the non-English speaking defendant.

The judge also questioned the DA's statement that Padilla had "an utter disregard for the value of human life" given that Padilla immediately called 911 when he first smelled the gas. The judge also said he thought Padilla's argument that he had been coerced had some merit, given that he pleaded guilty to the highest charge and the only benefit to him that the Court could discern "was the People's promise that they would not prosecute Padilla's wife and son."

As covered in the report, prosecutors routinely delay or withhold discovery, which was specifically identified as a frustration in our survey by Rockland County criminal defense practitioners (see page 34), NYSACDL officials told Patch. "Padilla’s case shows how prosecutorial reliance on plea deals to avoid potentially costly jury trials can result in false felony convictions. Padilla was effectively denied his Sixth Amendment right to trial, and had to litigate for several years to overturn the plea."