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mahatmakanejeeves

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Wed Jul 26, 2023, 09:19 AM Jul 2023

Scofflaw Rockland Roofing Contractor Faces Criminal Charge

Crime & Safety

Scofflaw Rockland Roofing Contractor Faces Criminal Charge

Since 2019, two employees have died and he has collected more than 40 citations and over $2.3 million in penalties, prosecutors said.

Lanning Taliaferro, Patch Staff
Posted Tue, Jul 25, 2023 at 2:31 pm ET

NANUET, NY — With two employees dead in three years from workplace falls and millions in fines and penalties, a Rockland County-based contractor has now been arrested.

Jose Lema, the founder and principal of ALJ Home Improvement, was arrested Tuesday morning at his home in Nanuet to be presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Victoria Reznik in White Plains federal court, according to Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Jonathan Mellone, the Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Region of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General.

Lema, a/k/a Jose Lema Mizhirumbay, was charged with willfully violating Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, resulting in the death of an employee, who fell off the roof of a building under construction in New Square, New York on Feb. 8, 2022, and died. The complaint charges that Lema failed to ensure employees wore fall protection systems.

"As alleged, Lema endangered the safety of his workers by disregarding regulations and failing to ensure his employees used fall protection systems," Williams said in a news release. "This conduct led to the death of a roof worker on a construction site. Today’s charge should serve as a reminder to small businesses that failure to comply with safety regulations can lead to unnecessary and preventable tragedy."

The Nanuet-based roofing and siding contractor works throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and has a significant history of safety violations and penalties. ... "Since 2019, two employees of ALJ Home Improvement have suffered fatal falls and ALJ continues to callously ignore the law and blatantly jeopardize the safety of its workers," Occupational Safety and Health Administration Area Director, Lisa Levy, said Feb. 3. "The company repeatedly refuses to comply with OSHA standards and make worker safety a priority, choosing instead to put profit over the lives of its employees. The reality is that a safe workplace is actually a more profitable workplace."

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