VENTURA : Firm Pleads Guilty in Death of Worker

A Ventura company accused of manslaughter after an employee was crushed to death on the job pleaded guilty Monday to two misdemeanor violations of the labor code.

As part of the plea agreement, VenVirotek Inc. will pay a $22,500 fine and will conduct presentations on workplace safety to Ventura County business groups.

The company must also pay an outside firm to conduct a safety audit of its operations and follow any recommendations that result from the inspection.

The company will be on probation for three years.

The charges stemmed from the death of Rudolfo Ayon of Oxnard, who was killed Dec. 12, 1989, while removing rags that had become stuck in a rock-crushing machine.

The machine was turned on by another employee, who was unaware that Ayon was inside.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia W. Strickland said her office wanted the company to agree to some form of probation.

State law says companies cannot be put on probation without their consent.

Under the plea agreement, VenVirotek must submit to regular inspections.

“You can’t put a company in jail,” she said, adding that the fines to be paid by the company equal the maximum that could have been assessed had it been convicted of the felony charge.

She said her office’s primary goal was preventing further accidents.

VenVirotek’s attorney, Louis Samonsky Jr., said the company was eager to avoid a felony conviction and the publicity of a trial.

“It’s a concerned corporation,” he said, adding that the firm has an excellent safety record.

VenVirotek, housed at the county’s Bailard Landfill, takes oily mud and mixes it with cement, glass and other materials to create a substance that can be disposed of in a landfill.

The oily mud comes from petroleum operations and otherwise could not be safely dumped.

Two management employees of the firm, Mike Hall and Andy Austin, pleaded no contest to the same labor code charges.

Municipal Judge Ken W. Riley fined Hall $1,500 and assessed a $600 fine against Austin.

Their attorney, Richard C. Loy, said it was Austin who discovered Ayon’s body.

“He is still extremely upset,” Loy said.

Another defendant, Pacific Labor Services, pleaded not guilty to labor code violations, and a trial was scheduled Aug. 26.