San Francisco Prosecutors Charge Construction Employees Over Deadly 2023 Trench Collapse
San Francisco prosecutors announced on Monday that they have filed felony involuntary manslaughter charges against a construction company and three of its employees in connection with a trench collapse that killed a worker in 2023.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission contracted with D’Arcy & Harty Construction, Inc., for a sewer tunnel rehabilitation project in the city’s Lower Haight neighborhood in September 2023. Javier Romero of Alameda, 24, was working in a narrow trench near the corner of Oak and Divisadero Streets when a passing heavy vehicle caused it to collapse.
Romero was buried alive and died of asphyxia.
The defendants, John Finbarr Darcy, 62, of San Francisco; John William Tobin, 39, of San Francisco, and Filiberto Poblano Perez, 52, of Richmond, were working as site safety representative, project manager, and foreman, respectively. Each was charged with four counts of violation of a safety standard resulting in death of an employee, in addition to involuntary manslaughter.
“This is a life that did not need to be lost,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said as she announced the charges on Monday. “This was an act that could have been prevented had those who have been charged, as well as this company, acted as they should have to protect this worker and to make sure that this project was safe. And we will hold them accountable.”
Matt McCarthy, chief of the San Francisco District Attorney’s White Collar Crime Division, said the company can be fined up to $1.5 million.
“There’s actually been an extension of that amount, but that extension came after this incident took place. So going forward, it’d be in the several millions, but right now it’s capped at $1.5 million,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said that there can be collateral consequences for the company as well, like restrictions on acquiring future government contracts.
An inspection by CAL/OSHA found that the 2.5-foot-wide, 5-foot-long, and 8-foot-deep excavation was not properly supported, in violation of the safety regulations governing excavations found in the California Code of Regulations. In 2024, the agency fined the company $371,100 for the safety failure.
Jenkins said that D’Arcy & Harty Construction had been the subject of a safety complaint about an inadequately supported trench on another project less than three weeks before the deadly excavation collapse.
“All of them, based on our collection of evidence, were knowledgeable and had been trained on these safety regulations and what was required to ensure that that trench was safe,” Jenkins said. “And two of them were present at the site and knew that the trench had not been supported as it should have been.”
Darcy, Poblano Perez and the company have all been arraigned and pleaded not guilty. The men have been released on the condition that they surrender their passports, not leave the state of California without the court’s permission and not supervise any employees or act in any capacity governing safety on a construction site.
Jenkins said that John William Tobin, the final defendant, has not surrendered yet to date, and that she is working with his attorney to have him do so.
D’Arcy & Harty Construction did not respond to a request for comment.
The next court date is the preliminary hearing set for Nov. 14.