Magistrate dismisses federal charges in electrocutions

CHICAGO -- A federal magistrate has thrown out misdemeanor charges brought against the parent company of a large electrical contractor in the deaths of two employees.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown ruled on Thursday that Rolling Meadows-based MYR Group Inc. could not be held criminally liable for the deaths of two men who were electrocuted in separate incidents while working on steel towers supporting high-voltage power lines in Chicago's suburbs.

Blake Lane, 20, of Sullivan was electrocuted Dec. 28, 1999, when he touched an energized wire he was sent to inspect in Mount Prospect. The accident occurred on his second day on the job.

Wade Cumpston, 43, of Ashland, Ky., was electrocuted March 25, 2000, after contacting an energized grounding cable while working from an uninsulated bucket at a tower in Plainfield.

MYR Group and its subsidiary, L.E. Myers Co., were charged in December 2002 with willfully violating regulations of the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration.

Brown ruled that prosecutors had failed to explain how any deficiencies in the training provided by MYR Group resulted in work-related accidents.

Charges against L.E. Myers were not challenged by defense lawyers in pretrial motions.

Myers employs more than 1,000 workers nationwide and is a wholly owned subsidiary of MYR, which has about 4,000 employees and owns several other electrical contracting companies, according to officials.

Between 1972 and 2000, 37 workers were killed on L.E. Myers jobs, according to OHSA.