The owner of an Akron construction company pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and workers' compensation fraud after one of his workers fell to his death on his second day on the job.

James Coon
(Ohio BWC Photo)

The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation in a bulletin posted Friday said contractor James Coon pleaded guilty last month, almost two years after the accident. Bureau investigators found that Coon had lied repeatedly about carrying comp insurance on his workers in order to avoid paying premiums.

“This tragic case underscores the critical importance for workplace safety protocols and workers’ compensation insurance,” BWC Administrator Stephanie McCloud said in the bulletin. “Our investigation found Mr. Coon willfully and deliberately disregarded his responsibilities under the law, and now several lives are devastated by it.”

The accident happened in November 2017. Gerardo “Jerry” Juarez Sr., a 39-year-old married father of five, died after he fell from the roof of a three-story apartment building where Coon's company was working. Juarez was not wearing fall-protection harness, authorities said. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration notified BWC of the accident four days after the incident.

It was not the first or the last violation for Coon, the BWC said.

Two other Coon employees were injured in falls prior to Juarez’s death, also during a time when Coon lacked comp coverage. Coon also had told BWC he no longer operated his business. But in March 2018, five months after Juarez’s death — agents observed six Coon employees at a worksite tearing shingles from a roof. They had no safety equipment, the bureau said.

Coon consistently reported to BWC over the years that he had no employees but a BWC audit found nearly $286,000 in payroll from 2009 through July 1, 2018.

Coon now owes BWC $303,152 for unpaid premiums and claims costs for workers injured during a policy lapse. His conviction for involuntary manslaughter, a third-degree felony, is punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.