San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Monday, Oct. 19, charged D'Arcy & Harty Construction Inc. and three of its supervisors with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Javier Romero, a young laborer buried when an unsupported trench caved in near Oak and Divisadero streets in the Lower Haight in 2023.

Why it matters: Criminal charges after a workplace death are rare. The job was a sewer rehabilitation project for the city's own San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

Who is charged

  • John Finbarr Darcy, 62, of San Francisco, the company's designated site safety representative
  • John William Tobin, 39, of San Francisco, the project manager
  • Filiberto Poblano Perez, 52, of Richmond, the crew foreman who directly supervised Romero
  • D'Arcy & Harty Construction Inc., the employer

Each faces one count of involuntary manslaughter and four counts of violating a safety standard resulting in the death of an employee, according to the DA's office.

Darcy, Poblano Perez and the company have been arraigned and pleaded not guilty. A judge released the two men on condition that they surrender their passports, stay in California and not supervise workers or handle safety on any jobsite. Jenkins said Tobin had not yet surrendered and that she was working with his attorney to arrange it, KQED reported.

What prosecutors say happened

On the morning of Sept. 28, 2023, Romero was working in a trench 2½ feet wide, 5 feet long and 8 feet deep. When a heavy vehicle drove by, the trench collapsed and buried him. He died of asphyxiation, according to the DA. Outlets reported his age at the time as 24 (KQED) and 25 (NBC Bay Area and the Chronicle); he lived in Alameda County.

A Cal/OSHA inspector found the excavation was not properly supported. The short sides facing Oak Street and a building were completely unsupported, and the long sides were only partly shored. Cal/OSHA fined the company $371,100 in 2024, KQED reported. The Chronicle reported the agency's seven citations included the lack of support and the lack of a ladder.

The DA said the company had been the subject of a safety complaint about an inadequately supported trench on another project less than three weeks before Romero died.

Court records reviewed by the Chronicle say firefighters found co-workers trying to dig Romero out around 10:30 a.m., and a fire captain described the shoring as "minimal to non-existent."

"This is a life that did not need to be lost," Jenkins said Monday. "And we will hold them accountable."

The company's response to the charges was not included in the reports reviewed for this story.