3 Executives Get 25 Years in Worker Death
Three former executives of a silver-recovery plant were sentenced today to prison terms of 25 years each following their unprecedented murder convictions in the cyanide-poisoning death of an employee.
The sentences were handed down by Cook County Circuit Judge Ronald J. P. Banks, who on June 14 found the three men guilty of murder after an eight-week bench trial.
Each defendant had faced up to 40 years in prison.
The three also were convicted of 14 counts each of reckless conduct, fined $10,000 and sentenced to serve 364 days in jail for each count. Those sentences are to be served concurrently.
The murder convictions were believed to be the first in the nation of corporate officials in the job-related death of an employee in the workplace.
Sentenced today were Steven J. O’Neil, former president of the now-defunct Film Recovery Systems Inc.; Charles Kirschbaum, plant manager, and Daniel Rodriguez, a foreman.
They were convicted in the Feb. 10, 1983, death of Stefan Golab, a 61-year-old Polish immigrant who worked at the plant in north suburban Elk Grove Village. Cyanide is used in extracting silver from exposed photographic and X-ray film.
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