Maximiliano “Max” Martinez
While Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is fighting a $176,000 civil fine for alleged safety violations in the 2010 death of a lineman in Solano County, local prosecutors and a state regulatory agency are fighting over who is to blame for the collapse of the criminal probe of the utility.
Earlier this month, the three-year deadline for Solano County prosecutors to file felony charges in the electrocution of Maximiliano Max” Martinez expired. Prosecutors say problems on the state workplace-safety agency’s end left them no choice.
The agency, Cal/OSHA, says it filed its criminal investigation with prosecutors in plenty of time and that it’s the district attorney’s responsibility that no charges were filed against PG&E.
The squabbling has left Martinez’s loved ones with few good answers about whether anyone will ever be held to answer for the 26-year-old worker’s death in an electrical vault he thought was safe.