Site of Fatal Ditch Cave-In Lacked Permits

A day laborer who died in a trench collapse was working at a construction site that lacked the city and state permits required by law, authorities said Friday.

The death of the man, identified as Sergio Rolando Barillos, 49, an immigrant from Guatemala, will be referred to prosecutors, authorities said.

Joseph Cohen, owner of the upscale home on El Caballero Drive in Tarzana, failed to obtain a permit from the Los Angeles Building and Safety Department to build a wall, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and six months in jail, code enforcement bureau chief David Keim said.

Cohen declined comment Friday through his son, who said a lawyer had advised that no comment be made.

Barillos was killed Thursday when the ditch, dug at the base of a slope rising nearly 20 feet above ground level, caved in and covered him with dirt. He may have suffocated but no official cause of death will be established until an autopsy is performed, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Barillos and fellow day laborers were putting in a retaining wall behind a swimming pool when the ditch, nearly 100 feet long and as much as 10 feet deep, caved in.

The owner also did not have permission required from the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to dig a trench deeper than 5 feet, said Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the agency in San Francisco.

Building and Safety inspectors ordered Cohen to brace the slope to prevent another collapse, Keim said.

Because the accident was fatal, Cal/OSHA investigators are required to submit evidence to the district attorney, who may file a criminal case, Fryer said. The inquiry could take up to six months, he said.

Coroner’s officials continued to search Friday for the accident victim’s relatives. Barillos had emigrated from Guatemala and recently came to California from Ohio in search of his two adult children and his wife, according to co-workers, Carrier said. They have not yet been located.

On average, four people in California are killed each year in excavation and trench-digging accidents, Fryer said.