February 17, 2008

Leonardo Cos Elias, a Guatemalan farmer, came to the United States in 2006 hoping to find work that would allow him to support the family he left behind. Finding his way to Rhode Island, Cos “first swept floors”.

Then he worked at a computer-numerically controlled (CNC) router, a high-speed machine that can cut metals, acrylic and wood while simultaneously engraving — or carving — intricate designs.

But then disaster struck. On Dec. 14, Cos got tangled in a CNC router and was “pinned to a table while overhead routing drills bore down on him.” Cos suffered suffered serious injuries to his pelvis and buttock. Half his leg was amputated.

According to Dr. Steven G. McCloy, an occupational physician experienced in treating non-English-speaking workers, the machine lacerated Cos’ femoral artery and split his hip joint.

Attorney Stephen J. Dennis told The Journal that his client was currently receiving the appropriate benefits under the workers’ compensation statutes, and that Cos would also be receiving reimbursements for future medical costs resulting from his injuries.

Source: The Providence Journal
February 17, 2008
(emphasis added)

December 11, 2007

Attorneys for injured immigrant Edgar Velasquez have vowed to fight for his return from Mexico after being deported immediately prior to his workers compensation hearing. Velasquez’s claim stems from an accident in which his face was slashed open with a chainsaw while working for a Warwick based tree service.

Velásquez’s lawyers allege that William J. Gorman Jr. arranged to have Velásquez deported last year before he could pursue a workers compensation claim against Gorman, owner of Billy G’s Tree Care in Warwick.

According to Velasquez’s lawyer Stephen J. Dennis of Providence, Gorman “tossed [Velasquez] out as damaged goods.”

In an unusual move, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an exception in Velasquez’s case, approving his return in September to attend his workers’ compensation hearing.

Velazquez received a horrifying wound while working for Gorman when a chainsaw he was using “bounced off a post and struck him in the face”. The Providence Journal reported that the “saw flayed his forehead to the bone; and sliced through his left eyelid and his nose.”

According to Velasquez, Gorman never provided any training or protective gear. Gorman is also thought to be behind Velasquez’s arrest and deportation on the morning in August 2006 when he was to appear at his workers’ compensation hearing. Instead, he was arrested by immigration agents and deported while Gorman watched and taunted him from a distance.

Now it is Gorman who will have to pay. The court ordered Gorman to pay medical expenses and lost wages to Velasquez, who returned to Mexico after the ruling.

Source: The Providence Journal
December 11, 2007
(emphasis added)

June 11, 2003

Attorney Stephen Dennis joined others in criticizing changes which would soften proposed legislation seeking stiffer penalties for employers failing to carry workers’ compensation insurance.

At issue is a bill which would increase the penalties for for Rhode Island employers who fail to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Under the proposed changes, failure to provide workers’ compensation insurance would become a felony and could include fines of up to $1,000 per day for businesses that fail to provide coverage.

The legislation is the result of the Station night club tragedy. The February 20 fire killed more than 100 people, including four employees. Because club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian had no workers’ compensation insurance, the employee’s families cannot receive workers’ compensation benefits.

As The Providence Journal reports,

By law, any business with one or more employees must carry workers’ compensation coverage.

Despite the egregious conduct of the Derderian brothers, and the fact that “more than 400 businesses that previously had no workers’ compensation insurance” have purchased it since the fire, business advocates still argued that it was possible for an employer to not know that workers’ compensation premiums were not being paid.

In an interview with The Providence Journal, attorney Stephen J. Dennis said that the effort to provide “wiggle room” by allowing employers to claim they did not “knowingly” violate the law is a “loophole” big enough that “you could drive a Mack truck through it.”

Indeed, the provision allowing employers to claim they did not “knowingly” fail to pay workers’ compensation insurance premiums undermines the point of the effort to stiffen penalties in the first place.

Source: The Providence Journal
June 11, 2003
page A1
emphasis added

October 19, 2002

Lawyer Stephen Dennis accused House Speaker John Harwood of “concocting” a

false version of the events that resulted in a settlement of the former legislative researcher’s… sexual harassment case.

According to Dennis, in recent public statements Speaker Harwood has mischaracterized events leading to a settlement of a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by client Wendy Collins.

Dennis told the Providence Journal that

Wendy stands by the allegations that she has made that it was oral sex for retention of work, and the retaliation, as a result, when she refused. She stood by it then. She stands by it now.

Harwood has been “on a campaign to try to undo the political damage” that has resulted from the August, 2002 disclosure of a sexual harassment claim against him filed by Collins in workers’ compensation court.

Collins was reassigned to a different position with the state and paid a $75,000 settlement for stress and wrongful termination “after agreeing to redact the words ‘sexual harassment‘ from her court filing”.

Seizing on this, “the usually aloof Harwood has gone on a public relations tour to try to clear his name and keep what is considered the most politically powerful position in the state: House speaker.” In so doing, however, Dennis claims Harwood has completely mischaracterized the facts of the case and made false statements about Collins’ workers’ compensation settlement in the media.

Source: The Providence Journal
October 19, 2002
Page A1
emphasis added

Stephen J. Dennis, attorney for Wendy Collins, today called attempts by Governor Almond’s office to seek a court opinion on giving employees access to their own personnel files “stonewalling”.

Collins, who was awarded a $75,000 settlement from the state, has now been subpoenaed to testify before a Providence County grand jury about an allegation that she dropped a previous sexual harassment lawsuit threat when she was given a $28,000-a-year state job.

In response to the subpoena, Collins requested her file.

Shortly after 3 p.m., Collins, 29, of Cranston, went to the state personnel and workers’ compensation division offices on the third floor of the Department of Administration building on Smith Hill.

Collins was accompanied by reporters from The Providence Journal, who first asked to

see the records under a regulation that allows the release of a workers’ compensation file provided the employee gives his or her written consent.” The newspaper had faxed a copy of the release to administration officials earlier [in the] week.

Collins then asked for her own records. Director of the Department of Administration Robert L. Carl, Jr. denied both requests.

The governor’s office refused to release the records even after a personal appeal by Collins and Dennis to Governor Almond’s legal staff.

Instead, Governor Almond’s office decided to take the issue to court under the pretext that the documents were being issued to the “public” rather than an individual employee.

The governor’s staff made available copies of the lawsuit and motion for expedited hearing they intend to file in Superior Court, in a bid for guidance on which documents the state can and cannot release to The Providence Journal and, potentially, others.

Collins’ attorney Stephen J. Dennis told the Journal

I think Ms. Collins has the right to obtain her own records. I don’t see why this is any different from any employee requesting their records.

Dennis continued,

It seems to me the governor is stonewalling and I don’t know why.

Source: The Providence Journal
August 30, 2002
page A1
(emphasis added)