Firm, President Face Charges in Contractor’s Electrocution on Job

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has filed misdemeanor criminal charges against a Glendale scaffolding company, its president and two other men, alleging negligence in the electrocution death of a contractor.

Atlas Scaffold Corp. and its president, Steven Phetteplace, 42, were charged with three violations of the Labor Code and one of the Penal Code in the April 6 death of Jose Osmin Argueta, 32.

Also charged were Rudy Garcia, 43, of Los Angeles, an Atlas employee, and C. William Carson, 57, of Malibu, owner of the Los Angeles apartment building where Argueta was electrocuted by a 4,800-volt power line.

The defendants are scheduled for arraignment Oct. 15 in Los Angeles Municipal Court. If convicted, each could be sentenced to two years in jail and fined $17,000.

Deputy City Atty. Vanessa Place, who filed the charges Wednesday, said Argueta was hired by Carson to do water blasting on his apartment building in the 500 block of South Rampart Boulevard. She said Argueta touched the power line while standing on the metal scaffold erected by Atlas.

The defendants are charged with causing the death of an employee by making him work too close to a power line, failing to provide a safe workplace and having a structure or equipment too close to a high-voltage line.