Chris Kuhns, a former senior investigator for the labor protection agency Cal-OSHA, said he hopes the family of Jairo Ramirez, an El Salvadoran immigrant who lived near Watsonville and was crushed to death in a cement mixer in 2021, will finally see justice.
Next month, Kristo Kristich, the president and CEO of Kristich-Monterey Pipe Company, which makes large 60-inch diameter concrete pipes, will have a preliminary hearing on charges related to the alleged disconnection of a key safety device that caused the death of Ramirez would have prevented it.
Kristich could face jail time and a fine of up to $1.5 million. The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office filed charges in January.
A Sacramento Bee investigation found that the case came within hours of not being filed because of what Kuhns calls dysfunction at Cal-OSHA and a years-long refusal by the worker protection agency to hire more investigators. It was only after The Bee inquired that the case was revived and the district attorney filed charges.
The agency has only one investigator for the entire state. It has a budget of eight. According to a story by the Sacramento Bee in February, this level of staffing puts workers at risk.
Staffing issues continue to plague Cal-OSHA’s research department, putting employees at risk
Kuhns spent 15 years at Cal-OSHA’s Bureau of Investigation, a small unit with a legally mandated role to investigate approximately 400 worker deaths annually, as well as other serious injuries, to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.
Former Cal-OSHA chief Ellen Widess, who served as head of Cal-OSHA from 2010 to 2012, said what happened at the BOI “is heartbreaking and defies logical explanation.”
“It’s outrageous to have just one inspector for 19 million workers, over a million workplaces in this state. It should be a well-supported unit.”
Under Widess, referrals to prosecutors for worker deaths increased tenfold. In 2022, the BOI referred three cases. In Widess’ last year, 2012, the BOI referred 29.
“We put bad actors in jail, that’s a real deterrent,” she said.
The brother a crown witness
Most Cal-OSHA cases involve civil penalties. Kuhns’ job was to decide which cases met the extraordinary bar to rise to the level of criminal negligence.
A key witness in the Kristch case is Jairo’s older brother Nilson.
The company mixes tons of cement every day, and doing so efficiently is the key to profits. It should be scraped clean every time the machine is used. It was grueling and, for Kristich, a dangerous job.
According to a draft investigation report prepared by Kuhns in April 2023, Nilson had refused to clean the machine.
“He was too scared to go in because of the large knives,” the report said.
And he was reluctant because he knew the safety mechanism had been changed so Kristich could turn on the machine remotely from a computer in the factory, the report said.
The cement mixer was located outside, out of sight, from where Kristich routinely turned the machine on and off, according to the report.
“Think of it like a clothes dryer: If the door is open and you try to start it, it won’t work,” Kuhns said. “The cement mixer had a similar device.”
“I have discussed this with our client and at this time we cannot comment on this pending legal matter,” said Kristich’s attorney Christopher Panetta.
Kristich fired Nilson for refusing, but hired him back, according to Kuhns’ report. He was valuable because, according to the report, he worked more than 100 hours a week, from 3 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., six days a week without overtime.
“Everyone knew the boss could turn on the machine with the door open, we saw it happen,” Nilson said.
After Jairo made the trip from El Salvador and joined his brother at the factory, “the machine scared him too,” his brother said.
“My brother had a bad feeling,” he said. “But he had a four-year-old boy in El Salvador, Saul de Jesus, and he felt like he had no choice. He needed the money. We prayed that it would be okay.”
On January 21, 2021, Jairo climbed into the machine and Nilson’s nightmare became reality. Jairo was eviscerated within seconds, while his brother was helpless about a hundred meters away.
Kuhn’s report recommends manslaughter charges. In theory, that should have made criminal charges almost certain.
Jonathan Raven, the CEO of the California District Attorneys Association and a former senior prosecutor in Yolo County, said the BOI plays a critical role in California’s criminal justice system.
“BOI’s investigative reports are critical in guiding prosecutors throughout California as they determine whether or not to file criminal charges against employers for workplace deaths or injuries,” he said.
Manslaughter charges recommended
But Kuhn’s report initially failed to reach the Monterey district attorney’s office.
Instead, the case was closed by Cal-OSHA and all of Kuhn’s investigative files were deleted, according to Kuhns and multiple Cal-OSHA sources.
Kuhns said the continued lack of support for the BOI from top officials at Cal-OSHA forced him to leave the job he loved.
“It’s satisfying when you can try to get justice for families and send a message that there are real consequences for being careless with someone’s life,” he said. “But the DIR (Department of Industrial Relations which oversees Cal-OSHA) made that impossible.”
Kuhns left the BOI in June 2023 and took a job at the much better staffed Cal Recycle as a detective. There he is one of thirty investigators who investigate fraud and other matters.
On his last day on the job, he emailed DIR director Katie Hagen, telling her that the situation at the BOI was desperate.
“It is clear that the organization does not care about the important work BOI does in making the workplace safe for California,” he wrote. “A unit that was staffed with nine investigators and needed to be expanded at that time has only two investigators left for the entire state of California. One of them also goes towards the door. When that happens, the BOI will be staffed with one investigator and a supervisor. Don’t be surprised if you are called before the legislature to answer some tough questions.”
Hagen did not respond to the email and DIR had no comment when asked about Kuhns’ email.
Following the Bee’s story about staff shortages in February, Cal-OSHA said it was hiring for eight positions at the BOI.
“We recently received nearly 100 applications and conducted nearly 50 interviews for vacant positions at the Bureau of Investigations (BOI),” spokesman Peter Melton said.
Kuhns left behind the report and his research files.
“I was hoping they would refer it,” he said. “But it was beyond my control.”
In October, Kuhns heard that the case had been closed.
“I was away at the time so I can’t say exactly what happened,” he said. “But I think the reason is the lack of good staff. Some additional work needed to be done on this case. And they just didn’t have the staff.”
As was standard practice at the BOI, all investigation files from closed cases were deleted, Kuhns and multiple other sources at Cal-OSHA said.
In response to a question about the files being deleted, Melton said: “The DIR and Cal-OSHA record retention policy was and is to maintain records in all referred and non-referred cases. We expect these policies to be followed and will take steps to train staff in these procedures and monitor compliance.”
Kritsich was fined $61,000 by Cal-OSHA for the accident, according to online accident reports posted by OSHA. Because he is appealing the fines, the owner still has to pay.
Julio Alfaro, another senior investigator who left the organization in March, said he remembers the Kristich case being dismissed sometime in the fall.
“The official reason is always the same: rejected ‘for lack of evidence,’” he said. “That’s what we always said. But the real reason was that the two researchers left at that time. We each had a backlog of more than 120 cases. No one had time to get the job done. And the statute of limitations clock was ticking, so they dropped it. ”
Melton said the BOI referred the case and was assisting the district attorney. Melton did not respond to questions about the previously dismissed case.
‘My brother deserves justice’
Nilson has moved on to another job. He said he has had a hard time recovering from the tragedy and feels guilty. “I have nightmares all the time,” he said.
When The Bee first spoke to Nilson in December, a criminal trial seemed like a remote possibility. The case was dismissed by Cal-OSHA and the extensive interview Kuhns conducted with Nilson was deleted, according to Kuhns.
After The Bee’s investigation, the district attorney contacted Kuhns and the BOI, according to a source in the district attorney’s office who was not authorized to speak publicly about it. Kuhns’ original report was recovered by the BOI. He said he emailed it to someone within Cal-OSHA, keeping an electronic file. But the audio recordings were permanently deleted.
Kuhns discovered that he still had the files on a USB stick.
“Luckily I had that,” he said. “I had no idea.”
The suit was filed with hours to go before the statute of limitations expired on January 21, three years after the date of the accident.
Nilson was informed of the criminal charges and paused.
“I don’t understand how this happened,” he said. “But I am happy. My brother deserves justice.”
