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‘Black Sunday’ Guilty Verdicts Overturned

March 5, 2010

By JEANMARIE EVELLY

In a controversial ruling on Feb. 23, a Bronx judge overturned a guilty verdict against the owner and the manager of an apartment building on East 178th Street, where two firefighters died battling a blaze five years ago.

Lt. John Bellew and Lt. Curtis Meyran were killed on Jan. 23, 2005—a date that’s come to be known as “Black Sunday,”—while fighting a fire that started on the building’s third floor. Partitions constructed by two of the building’s tenants created hazardous conditions within the apartment and made it impossible for firefighters to access the fire escape, according to court documents. Six firefighters were forced to jump from a fourth-floor window to escape the flames; both Bellew and Meyran died from the impact.

In February of 2009, a jury found the company that owned the building and the manager acting on its behalf guilty of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment—a verdict that was overturned by Justice Margaret L. Clancy last month.

“This court finds that this is that rare case where it cannot permit the jury verdict to stand,” Clancy said in a written decision.

There was not sufficient evidence to prove that Cesar Rios, the building’s manager, and 234 East 178th Street Limited Liability Company, which owned the property, knew of the dangerous conditions that started the fire and led to the firefighters’ deaths, according to Clancy’s statement.

A spokesman from the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said they are still deciding whether to appeal the decision.

In a statement, Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano said he hopes the ruling will not “send the wrong message to those who seek to profit by creating illegal occupancies.”

“The fact is, people continue to die in fires because of illegally constructed partitions that block egress,” Cassano said.

Caridad Coste and Rafael Castillo, the two tenants who had illegally built the partitions to create smaller rooms within their apartments, were acquitted of charges in a trial last year.

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