Drain company, owner charged with manslaughter for drowning deaths of two workers in a South End trench

A Suffolk County grand jury has indicted Atlantic Drain Services of Roslindale and its owner, Kevin Otto, on charges of manslaughter and misleading investigators for the October drowning deaths of Robert Higgins and Kelvin Mattocks 14 feet down while working on a trench at Dartmouth and Tremont streets on Oct. 21, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

At an afternoon press conference, DA Dan Conley said Atlantic and Otto "willfully, wantonly, and recklessly failed" to take the safety steps that could have kept the two workers alive as they connected new water and sewer lines to a home.

Federal regulations that require any excavation deeper than five feet, and any adjacent utilities, be shored up to prevent exactly the sort of cave-in that occurred here. The shoring can be done in any number of ways, including with wooden planks or metal trench boxes designed specifically for this purpose.

The evidence has established that the defendants were well aware of this shoring requirement, as well as the grave danger that workers would be exposed to without it, because they'd incurred two separate OSHA violations in the past 10 years for failing to follow it. In fact, as a result of those violations, they were to undergo extensive training on how to implement cave-in protection. But there was no shoring in place at the Dartmouth Street dig site when Robert Higgins and Kelvin Mattocks were buried alive.

We allege that Kevin Otto and Atlantic Drain Services knew the risk posed by a 14-foot trench without proper shoring - and that they chose to run that risk rather than take reasonable precautions.

That isn't an accident. That isn't negligence. That's wanton and reckless conduct, and we believe it cost two men their lives.

Conley added:

And we further allege that they provided fraudulent records in response to federal subpoenas during the investigation that followed - and failed entirely to provide those records to the Suffolk County Special Grand Jury.