Contractor, Equipment Operator Plead Guilty to Manslaughter after Trench Death
The 56-year-old worker was in an 8-foot-deep, 135-foot-long trench guiding a pipe installation when the cave-in occurred.
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A Connecticut contractor and equipment operator pleaded guilty April 4 to second-degree manslaughter after a worker died in a trench collapse in 2022.
Dennis Slater, 56, was in an 8-foot-deep, 135-foot-long trench July 22, 2022, guiding a 20-foot section of pipe into place at a residential development in Vernon when the walls collapsed. He later died at the hospital.
His employer, Botticello Inc. of Manchester, was cited by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2023 with three violations – no cave-in protection, no safe way to exit the trench and no prior inspection of the trench before workers entered. OSHA also noted that Botticello had similar violations from 2015.
The company was initially fined $375,021, which was later reduced to $190,000 after Botticello appealed, according to OSHA online records.
The Vernon Police Department arrested company owner Dennis Botticello, 69, and Glen Locke, 67, who was operating an excavator when the incident occurred, on March 3, 2023, on charges of first-degree manslaughter and reckless endangerment. Both were released on $50,000 bail.
This month the two men accepted a plea deal with the office of Matthew C. Gedansky, Tolland Judicial District state’s attorney, for a lesser charge of second-degree manslaughter. They are scheduled to be sentenced May 16. The state attorney says they are each expected to receive a 10-year prison sentence, suspended after five years served, followed by three years of probation. They can also argue for a lesser sentence May 16 in Rockville Superior Court.
“This deadly cave-in and the worker’s death should never have happened,” said OSHA Area Director Dale Varney in Hartford when announcing the fines in 2023. “After a previous OSHA inspection, Botticello Inc. knew of the dangers of working in an unprotected trench and the need to inspect the trench and ensure required effective cave-in protection was in place before any employee entered the trench. The company, however, still chose to ignore these required safeguards and now a worker’s family, friends and co-workers are left to grieve.”
