CAL-OSHA: Plea deal made in death of pregnant farmworker

By Garance Burke
The Associated Press - The Associated Press

FRESNO — Two company officials charged in the death of a pregnant teenager who collapsed of heat stroke after working in a sweltering Farmington vineyard have agreed to a plea deal that likely will spare them a trial appearance and a lengthy jail sentence.
Maria De Los Angeles Colunga and Elias Armenta of Atwater-based Merced Farm Labor originally were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, 17. She fainted in her fiancé's arms after hours of work pruning wine grapes in 2008.
Their lawyer and prosecutors said Thursday they had reached an agreement for the pair to plea to lesser charges in early March, when the case is next set to go before San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Michael Garrigan.

"There will be some guilty pleas, but the consequences will be bearable," defense attorney Randy Thomas said. "Enough time has elapsed and everyone needs to move along with their lives. My clients are very, very nice people and very remorseful."
Farmworkers and their advocates have cited Vas- quez Jimenez's death as they repeatedly have called for stricter enforcement of state regulations that require farms and contractors to give workers water and breaks, have shade available and have an emergency plan in place to help those suffering from heat exhaustion.
"I'm alarmed at the decision," Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers, said about the plea deal. "We feel strongly that these folks should go to jail and nothing short of that will satisfy us."
The rules enacted on an emergency basis in 2005 were intended to protect the hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers who pick and sort much of the nation's plums, peaches and other crops in the height of summer. California workplace safety officials voted last year to modify the rules in an attempt to strengthen and clarify protections for people who work outside.
Vasquez Jimenez's death brought on-farm working conditions in California — the first state to implement a heat-illness standard — to the political forefront.
Deputy District Attorney Lester Fleming agreed Thursday that the two sides had reached a deal, but described it differently.
Colunga is set to plead no contest to a misdemeanor count of failing to provide the teen with access to shade, he said.
Armenta, Colunga's brother and Merced Farm Labor's former safety coordinator, plans to plead no contest to a felony charge of failing to follow a safety regulation that resulted in a worker's death, which would have a maximum sentence of 60 days in jail, Fleming said.
"While they were intellectually aware of the dangers, I don't think anyone was taking the heat regulations very seriously because they were only implemented in 2005," Fleming said. "I think this is the best resolution we could hope for."
Raul Martinez, the former foreman and a third defendant, has failed to appear in court.
Merced Farm Labor was fined more than $262,000 and the state subsequently shut down the contractor, accusing its principals of failing to train employees for heat-related emergencies.
The company appealed, and the proceeding has been on hold until the criminal case concluded, said Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.