THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994 TAG: 9406130043
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940613 LENGTH: NORFOLK
State inspectors were appalled. They slapped Dorey with a $68,000 penalty and cited eight safety violations in Hales' death.
{REST} That was in 1990. Four years later, lawyers still are arguing about whether Dorey is liable for Hales' death and another apprentice's death in 1992.
So far, Dorey has escaped liability. State inspectors say the company committed willful violations in both cases, but a Norfolk judge has dismissed every case against Dorey - civil and criminal - saying the state's occupational-safety law is unconstitutional.
On Thursday, the state Supreme Court heard arguments in the cases. They will decide in September if Dorey should be tried for the accidents and face combined penalties of $89,300 - or if the law is unconstitutional.
As the lawyers argue, relatives of the two dead employees seethe.
``Dorey has gotten by with murder twice. There's no other way to put it,'' said Hales' mother, Sandi Hales of Chesapeake. ``If you and I had committed a crime, we'd go to jail. Yet this company can just go on and make money.''
In Norfolk, the Roberson family is equally frustrated. Scott J. Roberson was run over by a concrete truck when Dorey supervisors ordered the driver to speed backwards across two lanes of Interstate 64.
``It's a shame they get to walk away without paying a penny,'' said Larry Glindeman, Roberson's father-in-law. ``It's a shame when you know no one will be punished for it.''
Company president Donald Dorey has declined to comment, but his attorney, Guilford D. Ware, denies that the company was at fault.
``All of these citations are allegations,'' Ware said. ``There's never been a hearing on them. They have not been proven. They are strictly allegations.
``Dorey is not a slipshod employer. They are very safety conscious. Dorey has a much better safety program than 90, 97 percent of the companies out there.''
\ Les Hales was the strong, athletic type. He was 25, short and muscular. He lifted weights at a local health club and jogged a couple of miles almost every day. ``The girls loved him,'' his mother said.
He had worked at Dorey for almost four years, learning the electrical trade as an apprentice. It was virtually a seven-days-a-week job.
Late at night on May 1, 1990, Hales was standing in a dark, wet manhole at Norfolk International Airport. State safety inspectors say there were no work lights, only a defective flashlight held by the foreman.
There were four electrical cables in the manhole, two of them live. The foreman had a probe to detect which cables were live and a key to turn off the current, but didn't use either, the state says.
Hales' job was to cut and splice a cable for taxiway lighting. Instead, he cut a main runway lighting cable, at the foreman's direction, and was electrocuted, the state says.
Scott Roberson was another young Dorey apprentice when he died. He was 23, married for two years to his former high-school sweetheart, Heidi Glindeman.
On Feb. 12, 1992, Roberson was working at the Tidewater Drive exit of Interstate 64, helping install light fixtures. The state says Dorey supervisors told a concrete truck to back quickly across two lanes of highway traffic to the opposite side.
Roberson was the spotter for the truck, but was not wearing a safety vest so he could be seen easier, the state says. The driver sped across the highway and ran over Roberson.
In both cases, the state Labor Department cited Dorey for safety violations and levied penalties totaling $89,300. Prosecutors also indicted the foreman in the Hales case. The charges later was dismissed.
But Dorey fought back. The company argued that Virginia's occupational-safety law was unconstitutional, that it gave too much power to the state Safety and Health Codes Board without spelling out specific safety standards.
Circuit Judge John C. Morrison Jr. agreed. He dismissed the Dorey cases.
Meanwhile, the Hales family tried suing Dorey, but failed. State law generally forbids employees from suing their employers.
Heidi Roberson had more success. She could not sue Dorey, but she could sue Tarmac concrete company, which owned and operated the truck. She settled her case against Tarmac for more than $200,000, less lawyer fees and a repayment to Workmen's Compensation.
Dorey, however, has paid no compensation to the families or the state, a fact that angers the Hales and Roberson families.
In frustration, Sandi and Lester ``Buddy'' Hales wrote an open letter to anyone who would listen.
``We are heartsick,'' they wrote, ``that our son's death was so meaningless to Dorey Electric and to the laws that protect businesses. Les was more than a statistic to those who knew him. His death was not just another day on the job.''
Both families say they feel personally mistreated by Donald Dorey.
The families say that, in each case, Dorey did send a meat tray after the funeral. In each case, too, Dorey did go to the emergency room and did attend the funeral.
But both families say Dorey did not go out of his way to be compassionate. Heidi Roberson said she had to call the company to demand her husband's last paycheck. Sandi Hales said Dorey workers were back on the job the day after her son was killed.
``Not one time has Dorey ever sent flowers to Heidi or asked her how she's doing,'' Larry Glindeman said. ``That's no way to handle business.''
But Dorey's attorney, Ware, said companies always are affected by an employee's death. ``It's as devastating to the employer as it is to the employee,'' Ware said.
The Hales family doesn't accept the company's arguments.
In their open letter, they ask: ``Where are Les' constitutional rights? He has no future, no birthdays to celebrate, no Christmas holidays with family. . . . All these things have been stolen from him by willful neglect by Dorey Electric . . . and the judicial system that protects the offenders.''
by CNB