Property owner Richard Basciano denies fleeing scene of deadly 2013 Center City building collapse

For more than three years, he has been the silent, elusive witness who was at the scene on the morning that the remains of one of his buildings on Market Street toppled, crushing an adjacent Salvation Army thrift store and killing six people inside.

On Wednesday, Richard Basciano spoke in public for the first time about the June 5, 2013, disaster, testifying in the Philadelphia civil trial of lawsuits filed against him and others in the collapse.

For most of his two hours on the witness stand in City Hall's cavernous Courtroom 653, the diminutive, snowy-haired Basciano looked every minute of his 91 years. Using a cane, he hobbled to the witness stand supported by an aide. He donned stereo earphones so he could hear questions, and responded in an almost inaudible, reedy whisper.

Then, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, Steven G. Wigrizer, asked Basciano whether he and his wife had left the scene to avoid being questioned by investigators.

"That is a damn lie," the one-time amateur boxer erupted. "I'm going through hell and you distort me and you know where I'm coming from."

Basciano's attorney, legendary Center City lawyer Richard A. Sprague, also 91, continually objected to Wigrizer's questions and urged Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina to tell Basciano not to blurt out a response until she ruled on his objection.

Basciano acknowledged that he and his wife, Lois, had been in front of his Hoagie City building about 10:30 a.m. - 11 minutes before it came down.

Although the Bascianos reside in Manhattan, where his real estate business is based, the couple also own an apartment at Symphony House on South Broad Street.

And in May 2013, Basciano testified, he was increasingly unhappy that demolition was a month behind on several buildings he owned in the 2100 block of Market Street. As a result, Basciano and his wife made a series of visits to the demolition site to check on progress.

The morning of the tragedy, Basciano said, he and his wife took a cab to 22nd and Ludlow Streets, and then walked north on 22nd toward Market, turned right on Market, went past the Salvation Army store, and stopped in front of the Hoagie City building.

At the time, the former Hoagie City, one of several buildings undergoing demolition, had an unsupported three- to four-story brick wall that towered above the adjacent one-story thrift store at 22nd and Market.

There, Basciano continued, they encountered Griffin Campbell, the North Philadelphia contractor he hired to raze Hoagie City and two adjacent properties.

Earlier, Campbell testified that he was chatting with the Bascianos about the progress of the job when the unsupported brick wall destroyed the thrift store.

On Wednesday, Basciano disputed Campbell's testimony.

"I totally disagree," Basciano replied when Wigrizer confronted him with Campbell's statement. "It's a gross distortion of the facts. I had to go to the bathroom. I didn't have any conversation with him."

Basciano said that he shook Campbell's hand and left his wife talking to the contractor while he walked a few doors east to use a bathroom in a parking garage building he owned.

In the bathroom, Basciano testified, he saw some "dust and dirt that came down" and felt a sensation that "something fell. I didn't know what it was."

After he returned to his wife, Basciano said, he saw that the building had collapsed.

He said he and his wife walked east on Market to a firehouse, where he rested on a bench while his wife returned to the scene and took photos.

When she returned, Basciano said, they headed to an 11:45 a.m. ophthalmologist appointment near Independence Mall.

Wigrizer questioned how Basciano, who worked in construction and for a time was a bricklayer, could have ignored the freestanding three- to four-story brick wall as he and his wife walked by.

Basciano, who was then recovering from knee replacement surgery, insisted he never looked at the demolition site: "When I walk I'm looking where I'm going because I am incapacitated."

Basciano also said that no work was ongoing when he was at the demolition site that morning, despite contemporaneous photos and video showing a 36,000-pound yellow excavator picking at the east wall of Hoagie City moments before the collapse.

"I never saw that yellow piece of equipment until after this accident," Basciano said.

In addition to Basciano and his STB Investments Corp., those being sued include Plato A. Marinakos Jr., the architect Basciano hired to supervise demolition; the Salvation Army; Campbell; and Sean Benschop, the operator of the excavator.

The lawsuits describe the disaster as the result of a chain of negligent conduct that began with Basciano and continued down to Campbell.

The lawsuit contends the Salvation Army ignored STB danger warnings and never told store employees or customers of the danger of an imminent collapse.

Campbell and Benschop were the only two people criminally charged. Benschop pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter; Campbell was convicted of involuntary manslaughter at trial last year. Both are serving long prison terms and are considered penniless.

jslobodzian@phillynews.com 215-854-2985 @joeslobo www.philly.com/crimeandpunishment