Aug. 12--One early morning shift, Jose Melena stepped into a 35-foot-long cylindrical oven at the Bumble Bee Foods plant in Santa Fe Springs. As the 62-year-old father of six made repairs inside, fellow employees loaded carts carrying about 12,000 pounds of tuna into the oven, closed its door and turned it on.
Melena was killed in the approximately 270-degree heat, and his gruesome death nearly three years ago resulted Wednesday in the largest known payout for workplace safety violations involving a single victim in a California criminal prosecution.
Bumble Bee Foods will pay $6 million for "willfully violating worker safety rules," according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
"You don't have warm blood running in your veins if you're not affected by the way this guy died. It's horrific," said Hoon Chun, consumer protection division assistant head deputy for the district attorney, who helped prosecute the case. "I cannot imagine a worse result of violating safety rules than something like this."
Melena's death, he said, will force the company to change the way things are done at the plant he once toiled at. Workers will no longer have to set foot inside the pressurized steam cookers, with the company paying $3 million to replace their outdated tuna ovens with new ovens that are automated.
Bumble Bee will pay $1.5 million in restitution to Melena's family. The district attorney's Environmental Enforcement Fund will receive $750,000 from Bumble Bee and the company also will pay $750,000 in combined fines, penalties and court costs.
Bumble Bee must implement enhanced safety measures, such as installing video cameras at their ovens, providing training to managers and workers about safety rules and conducting safety audits of their plant equipment.
"I hope it sends a message that safety rules are not a recommendation, they are a legal requirement," Chun said.
The sentence will not be formally imposed for 18 months and if at that time Bumble Bee has complied with the terms, it will be allowed to plead guilty to willful failure to implement and maintain an effective safety program, a misdemeanor.
"While this resolution will help bring closure with the district attorney's office, we will never forget the unfathomable loss of our colleague Jose Melena and we are committed to ensuring that employee safety remains a top priority at all our facilities," Bumble Bee Foods said in a statement.
In April, the San Diego-based company, former safety manager Saul Florez, and Angel Rodriguez, the director of plant operations, were each charged with three felony counts of committing an occupational safety and health violation that caused a death.
Florez pleaded guilty Wednesday to a felony count of willfully violating work safety rules resulting in Melena's death.
He was sentenced to three years of formal probation, ordered to complete 30 days of community labor and take work safety classes. Florez must also pay about $19,000 in fines and penalty assessments.
With his family sitting quietly by him, Rodriguez agreed to perform 320 hours of community service, pay $11,400 in fines and penalty assessments and to take work safety classes.
In 18 months, both Florez and Rodriguez can have their felony convictions reduced to misdemeanors if they comply with the conditions of their plea agreements.
One of Melena's relatives sat stone-faced and silent in the courtroom Wednesday, while the rest of the family remained outside in the hall. Chun said the victim's family did not want to talk.
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UPDATE
1:36 p.m.: This post has been updated throughout, with quotes from an L.A. County prosecutor and other details.
This story was originally posted at 11:59 a.m.
