Macy’s fined nearly $1 million after decapitation of factory employee

Macy’s Corporate Services Inc. will pay a $950,000 fine as part of a settlement negotiated Monday in an employee’s death, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said. The 65-year-old man was decapitated by machinery at a distribution center.

Macy’s also pleaded no contest Monday to a misdemeanor count of corporate criminal liability in the 2009 death of Roy Polanco, authorities said.

Polanco was operating a cardboard baling and compactor machine at a Macy’s distribution center in East Los Angeles on July 13, 2009, when he fell into an unguarded opening of the unit.

He was crushed to death and decapitated by the machine’s hydraulic compacting ram, according to the district attorney’s office.

The machine, a baler, is used to compact waste for recycling. The one he fell into had been modified to operate without interruption.

In addition to paying the fine, Macy’s must also conduct an audit of balers and compactors at its California stores and distribution centers, which must be approved by the district attorney’s office.

The company will pay the fine at a sentencing hearing scheduled Aug. 15.

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