The first witnesses in the trial of William Rapetti, the master rigger of a 200-ft-high tower crane that had a deadly collapsed off a rising Manhattan condo in 2008, were a firefighter and a man he found “buried alive” in the rubble.
Prosecutors accuse Rapetti of causing the accident that killed seven and brought both men to the debris heap by negligently installing the crane’s slings. Rapetti could spend up to 27 years in prison for multiple charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault and reckless endangerment.