A co-defendant in a negligent homicide case stemming from a 2008 tower crane collapse that killed two New York City construction workers quietly changed his plea to guilty earlier this month and has promised to help prosecutors convict his former boss, James F. Lomma, who had owned the crane, court transcripts show. The trial had been set to start next month.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Thomas Farber granted a request by defendant Tibor Varganyi, 65, former head mechanic at Lomma’s firm, New York Crane, to change his plea in a closed courtroom, but the judge refused to seal the records of his allocution hearing.