Metro

Crane rigger acquitted of all counts in 2008 collapse

The master rigger who prosecutors blamed for causing the horrific East Side crane collapse that killed six of his friends and a tourist from Florida was acquitted this morning of criminal charges that could have landed him in jail for up to 15 years.

“Not guilty,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Roger Hayes said again and again as a stoic William Rapetti’s shoulders relaxed – and his wife melted into tears behind him in the audience.

Rapetti was charged with seven counts of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault and reckless endangerment stemming from the March 15, 2008 collapse on E. 51st Street.

Prosecutors said it was his shoddy job of securing the almost-200 foot crane that led to the collapse. Rapetti’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, contended there was a multitude of other problems with the structure that had nothing to do with his client that led to the fatal fall.

Rapetti, 49, refused comment after Hayes’ rendered his verdict, but was clearly red-eyed as he hugged family and friends in the courtroom.

Aidala said his client was “not happy, but relieved.”

“These were his best friends. Not just guys he worked with once in a while,” Aidala said. “They were like family.”

He said prosecutors’ contention that his client would have knowingly endangered his men and himself at the work site was unfathomable. “None of these guys would have ever done anything to hurt each other,” Aidala said.

He blamed the fall on the crane having not been bolted to the ground, and said there were too few girders to support the structure – both issues Rapetti had nothing to do with, and that investigators had overlooked the importance of.

The lawyer said it wasn’t his or Rapetti’s job to place blame – “it was to make sure the blame wasn’t put in the wrong place.”

Aidala said his client had received support from many of the dead workers’ widows, including one who told him the only thing that could make her loss worse would have been Rapetti going to jail for it.

Howard Hirschenhorn, who represents Denise Bleidner, the widow of crane operator Wayne Bleidner, said she thought the judge “made a sound and rational decision.”

In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said, “We are extremely disappointed by the court’s verdict. At this time our thoughts go out to the seven victims’ families, whose lives were devastated by this tragic incident.”

Aidala said his client plans to spend time with his family today, and then go to the cemetries where the workers are buried tomorrow “to spend some time with his friends.”