“Unfortunately, there was not,” he recounted.
Larry Shapiro, an engineer who worked with Lomma, will testify that he would not have approved RTR’s bearing, Cherkasky said. Other witnesses, he said, will include the owner of an apartment damaged by the crane, and former Lomma employee Robert Hoffman.
Since Lomma waived his right to a jury trial, Judge Daniel Conviser will decide the case from the bench.
The Lomma trial follows last year's criminal trial of three construction managers charged in a fire during demolition of a Manhattan high-rise, the Deutsche Bank building that killed two city firefighters. The three defendants were acquitted (see related story).