PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Zappalla Probe of Dixon Case
by Donna Spadaro Thursday July 31, 2003 at 11:50 AM
dspadaro@usachoice.net (email address validated)

District Attororney Zappalla needs to "pick up where Dr. Wecht left off" and investigate the asphixiation death of Charles A. Dixon in an encounter with the police. In the same spirit, Zappalla needs to report to this community the results of the investigation into the death of Paul Corsi at the convention center truss collapse.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette is to be commended for calling upon District Attorney Stephen Zappalla to “pick up where Dr. Wecht left off” and investigate the asphyxiation death of Charles A. Dixon in an encounter with police ( “Probe the Police” 7/25/03). The PG rightly calls for “scales of justice to be balanced for all citizens.”

In this same spirit, I urge the PG to call upon DA Zappalla to report to the community the results of the investigation into the death of Paul Corsi at the convention center truss collapse in February 2002. Almost a year has gone by since Allegheny County Coroner Cyril Wecht investigated this death and found “ failures so blatant and overwhelming that a person could only conclude that the actions, errors and omissions more than rise to a level of recklessness and grossly negligent conduct” and recommended that the Dick Corporation be held criminally liable. In appalling contrast, OSHA found no evidence of criminal violations. T he Dick Corporation was able to “negotiate” with OSHA to have two of the citations issued reclassified as “other than serious” and one dropped completely, that resulted in a reduction of fines to a paltry $12,000.

Families of victims killed on the job, whose tax dollars fund OSHA, have no such access to “negotiate” with OSHA and no method of readdressing negligence that indeed may be criminal. As my brother, Gary Puleio, was killed in an industrial accident, I have experienced this firsthand. OSHA patronizingly dismisses the concerns of families as due to inexperience or emotional distress. Certainly Dr. Wecht’s concerns cannot be written off by OSHA in the condescending manner that family members’ concerns are.

This community deserves to know the results of District Attorney Zappalla’s investigation. If worker safety laws are to have any validity and the truthful circumstances surrounding the death of Paul Corsi are ever to be made known, an adequate investigation by an unbiased authority must be done.

Reporting the facts of this investigation, will be a step in balancing the scales of justice for Paul Corsi, my brother Gary, and the approximately 6000 workers who are killed yearly on the job.


Donna Puleio Spadaro



CC: Stephen A. Zappalla, District Attorney, 436 Grant St. Room 303 Courthouse, Pgh, PA 15219

CC: Cyril Wecht, MD, JD, Coroner, 572 Fourth Ave, Pittsburgh PA 1

CC: Richard Soltan, OSHA, The Curtis Center, 170 S. Independence Mall West, Suite 740 West, Phila, PA 19106

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