Accused killer crane-rigger William Rappetti has decided to go to trial next week without those pesky, emotional jurors.
Rappetti — charged with manslaughter for the 2008 crane collapse on East 51st Street that killed seven people — told a Manhattan judge yesterday that he wants a bench trial.
“It’s probably the most important decision in his life,” said his lawyer, Arthur Aidala.
Rappetti’s decision followed a week of on-the-record concern over how jurors would react to such emotionally charged evidence as a wreckage-trapped civilian’s screams of pain to a 911 operator.
Rappetti had even expressed concern last week that prospective jurors not hear the word “collapse” when the judge described the case to them.
Aidala said his client’s decision to go jury-free was also based on how difficult some jurors might find it to concentrate on very technical testimony.
Meanwhile yesterday, James Delayo — the former chief crane inspector for the city’s Department of Buildings — was sent to prison for two years for a bribery scheme that put underqualified people behind the controls of smaller “cherry picker” cranes.