Acquit Tenants in Bronx Fire

JOHN G. BELLEW

A Bronx jury Feb. 13 acquitted two tenants of charges that the illegal partitions they erected in their apartment contributed to the deaths of two firefighters who jumped four floors to their deaths after being unable to reach a building fire escape.

The widow of Lieut. Curtis Meyran, who died along with Firefighter John G. Bellew, gasped at the reading of the verdicts against Rafael Castillo and Caridad Coste, and was in tears when she was escorted from Justice Margaret Clancy's courtroom.

Unions Angered by Verdict

"I don't understand the verdict," Uniformed Fire Officers Association Vice President James J. McGowan said. James Slevin, who holds the same position with the Uniformed Firefighters Association, remarked, "The bottom line is, if those partitions were not erected, they would have made it to the fire escape."

Four other firefighters suffered serious injuries in mak- ing the 50-foot jump from the apartment at 236 East 178th St. during the Jan. 23, 2005 fire.

A second jury was still deliberating in the separate trial— although it was heard simultaneously— of former landlord Cesar Rios and a limited liability corporation that now owns the building but lists him as its agent as this newspaper went to press late last Friday afternoon.

CURTIS MEYRAN

Defense lawyers in both cases argued that the greatest fault lay with the Fire Department, in particular citing the decision of ex-Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen to discontinue the issuance of personal safety ropes to firefighters several years prior to the blaze. They also cited the bursting of a hose in the freezing conditions that day that delayed firefighters from getting water on the fire, which exacerbated the conditions that led firefighters in the apartment to have to jump.

Following his acquittal, Mr. Castillo, speaking through an interpreter, said of the dead firefighters, "I am sorry for their families. The city is responsible."

'A Tragedy, But. . .'

His attorney, Vincent Scalea, added, "This was a tragedy, but we are very, very grateful that the jury did not compound this tragedy."

THOMAS VON ESSEN: Rope decision gets blistered.

Mr. Castillo and Ms. Coste had faced manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment charges for constructing the wall for a makeshift room that they rented out.

An attorney for the liability corporation, Neal Comer, argued that the building's landlord could not be held criminally liable for what its tenants had done.

But he also criticized fire operations at the site, Mr. Von Essen's decision to discontinue the issuance of the safety ropes "to save some money," and some of the firefighters who testified during the trial.

Mr. Comer charged that several of them upon cross-examination contradicted previous testimony they gave in a civil suit or what they had told investigators before the criminal indictments were brought.

'Mistaken' Testimony

"I don't have it in my heart to call people liars," Mr. Comer said. "I prefer to just believe they were mistaken."

He cited the testimony of Eugene Stolowski, who suffered disabling injuries as a result of his jump from the fourth-floor window, that he returned to the fire floor from a lower floor because he learned more firefighters were trapped there. Mr. Comer said that Mr. Stolowski originally told investigators that he didn't know why he had come back to the fourth floor.

Photo by Richard Harbus NEAL COMER: Spreads blame around.

Speaking of all the firefighters whose testimony he claimed was inconsistent with previous statements they made, he told jurors, "They don't have infallible memories."