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Former Extrudex executives indicted
By JUSTIN DENNIS
NORTH JACKSON
Two former Extrudex Aluminum executives were federally indicted for allegedly covering up circumstances in the death of one worker caused by unsafe machinery.
Brian K. Carder, 62, of Stow, who was the Mahoning Avenue plant’s general manager at the time, and Paul Love, 57, of Lake Milton, who was its safety coordinator, are both named in a four-count indictment handed up Wednesday, according to a release from the U.S. Northern District Court.
The indictment alleges Carder and Love made false statements to investigators from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, withheld an email regarding the machinery’s safety and persuaded other workers to recant their previous email warnings about the machinery’s safety, “including by suggesting their jobs might be in jeopardy.”
John J. Tomlin Jr., 21, of Niles, was killed in October 2012 when racks containing hot aluminum product weighing between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds that he was pushing on a conveyor tipped over, crushing him. The Mahoning County Coroner’s office ruled Tomlin’s death by “mechanical asphyxiation” was an accident.
Another worker also pushing the racks, 25-year-old Dallas Bright, previously reported as a Cortland resident, was hospitalized for severe burns but survived.
The indictment states Carder, Love and several other plant workers were aware the conveyor system was in need of maintenance as early as 2009, and it cites numerous emails wherein employees stress the importance of the repairs, though they ultimately never happened.
“Someone is seriously going to get hurt or even killed because of this,” reads an email sent from one employee on Oct. 26, 2012, just four days before Tomlin’s death.
During an OSHA investigation launched the day after Tomlin’s death, Carder and Love provided numerous investigators several emails but allegedly withheld a June 2012 email in which Carder stated he personally witnessed the conveyor rollers failing and wrote, “[w]e are going to wait until someone gets seriously [injured] or possibly killed when a rack falls on them.”
Carder and Love allegedly coerced employees included in those email chains to draft statements recanting their previous emails about the conveyor’s safety concerns, in an effort to receive a lesser OSHA violation and avoid certain penalties, including the company’s publication in OSHA’s “Severe Violator” list, the indictment states.
“There was nothing no one or Extrudex could have done to prevent this anymore than what we did,” wrote a shipping supervisor who later told investigators they wrote the statement because they feared losing their job.
Carder and Love each face three counts for allegedly obstructing justice and OSHA proceedings and for conspiring to obstruct justice. Love faces an additional count of making false statements, for allegedly telling investigators he was unaware of any instances in which the conveyors failed.
Chris Georgalis, an attorney representing the Ontario-based manufacturer, said neither Carder nor Love remained with the company after Tomlin’s death. No other North Jackson plant employees were terminated, he said.
“The company has cooperated with the investigation and continues to cooperate with the investigation,” he said.
Court records on Thursday did not list an attorney for Love. Carder’s attorney, Roger M. Synenberg of Cleveland, declined to speak specifically about the case.
“We’re going to diligently defend this until he’s been found not guilty of the charges,” he said.
The widow of John Tomlin Jr. sued Extrudex and its rack maintenance company in 2014. The case was settled in 2016 at the company’s cost, but court records do not specify the settlement amount. The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning plaintiffs cannot bring new action in the claim.