Defendants win pier case ruling

Pennsylvania - New Jersey - New York - Nationwide

Still face charges in deadly collapse

BY Paul D. Davies
Of the Daily News Staff
Tuesday, October 28, 2003

The state Superior Court yesterday upheld an earlier judge's ruling that threw out the felony charges against the owner and operator of Pier 34, which collapsed and killed three young women and injured 43 others in May 2000.

The ruling is another setback in the criminal case District Attorney Lynne Abraham has brought against pier owner Michael Asbell and nightclub operator Eli Karetny. Abraham's office plans to appeal said D.A. spokeswoman Cathie Abookire."This is a real surprise," said William Mikita, an attorney for monica Rodriquez, who was killed in the pier collapse along with Jean Marie Ferraro and DeAnn White. "We are disappointed to say the least."

Asbell and Karetny could not be reached for comment. Their attorneys applauded the decision.

"This is a positive development," said attorney Louis Bove. "This was the correct decision."

Frank Desimone, the attorney for Karetny, said, "We now have two courts that agreed with us."

The three-judge Superior Court panel voted 2-1 in favor of Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner's ruling last year that prosecutors failed to prove the elements of the felony charges of risking a catastrophe and conspiracy.

Voting in the majority were Judge Stephen A. McEwen Jr. and Judge Richard B. Klein. Judge Correale F. Stevens dissented.

The Superior Court panel also agreed with Judge Lerner's decision to uphold the remaining misdemeanor charges. Those charges include three counts of involuntary manslaughter, failure to prevent a catastrophe, misdemeanor conspiracy and 43 counts of reckless endangerment.

If convicted of the involuntary manslaughter charges, the most serious of the misdemeanors, Asbell and Karetny face up to five years in jail. The felony charges carry prison terms of up to seven years for each count.

A large portion of Pier 34 collapsed on the night of May 18, 2000. the three women killed - Ferraro, 27, Rodriguez, 21 and White, 25 - suffered head injuries and drowned.

The three women and the 43 others injured were among the customers at the nightclub Heat, located at the end of the pier.

Asbell's company, Portside Investors, owned the pier. Karetny headed HMS Ventures, the company that leased the pier and operated the nightclub. HMS Venures was owned by Dorrence "Dodo" Hamilton, the Campbell Soup heiress. She was not charged with any wrongdoing.

A 14-month grand jury investigation found the pier was shifting and cracking in the days before the collapse, yet nothing was done despite an alleged warning from an employee of the company hired to inspect the pier.