Lawyer fighting effort to depose wall-collapse contractor
The lawyer for demolition contractor Griffin Campbell said Thursday that he would oppose a move to question Campbell under oath ahead of next year's trial in a suit filed on behalf of the victims in the deadly 2013 collapse of a Salvation Army building in Center City.
The lawyer for demolition contractor Griffin Campbell said Thursday that he would oppose a move to question Campbell under oath ahead of next year's trial in a suit filed on behalf of the victims in the deadly 2013 collapse of a Salvation Army building in Center City.
Lawyers seeking damages for the six killed and 13 injured in the June 5, 2013, disaster at 22d and Market Streets want to depose Campbell under oath for five days in January.
Campbell testified in his defense in the criminal trial last month, in which he was found guilty of six counts of involuntary manslaughter and other charges.
But defense attorney William D. Hobson said questioning in a civil deposition could be far more wide-ranging than the questions put to Campbell at trial, and could violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
"My position is very simple," Hobson said. "He has exercised his right to file an appeal. Simply because he testified at trial does not mean I'm going to let him be questioned in a deposition."
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Mark I. Bernstein, who oversees pretrial matters in the civil case, has set a Nov. 30 hearing date on plaintiffs' lawyers request to depose Campbell and Sean Benschop, operator of the excavator that toppled a freestanding three-story wall that crushed the adjacent thrift store.
Robert J. Mongeluzzi, who filed the petition to question Campbell and Benschop, could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Benschop's criminal attorney, William Davis, said he was not involved with the civil case and declined comment. Davis said he had not spoken with Benschop recently and did not know whether he knew of the deposition petition.
Both Campbell, 51, and Benschop, 44, who pleaded guilty to charges and testified for the prosecution during Campbell's trial, are to be sentenced Jan. 8 by Common Pleas Court Judge Glenn B. Bronson.
Mongeluzzi's petition proposes that Campbell's deposition begin Jan. 11 and last five days, followed by five days of questioning Benschop, starting Jan. 18.
The civil trial consolidates 20 individual lawsuits. Those sued include Campbell and Benschop, and also 16 other individuals and entities with much deeper pockets: Richard Basciano, the real estate developer who owned the building at 2136-38 Market St. that collapsed and crushed the store; national and local entities of the Salvation Army; and Plato A. Marinakos Jr., Basciano's demolition architect, who testified before a county grand jury under a grant of immunity and against Campbell at trial.
Last month, plaintiffs' lawyer Steven G. Wigrizer said lawyers had deposed about 30 witnesses but still had 50 to 80 to do, including Basciano and his project manager, Thomas Simmonds, and Richard Cresci, an officer of Basciano's company.
Bernstein has set May 2 for a final settlement conference to see whether there is any possibility of avoiding what he predicted would be a four-week trial starting Sept. 6.
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