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ROBIN STEINAlfonso Escobar was hurt at work in February. After surgeries, evictions and debt, charges might soon be filed.
Alfonso Escobar may be luckier than most.
He is a legal U.S. resident, and he has a lawyer, friends in Tampa willing to put him up and nothing to do but watch Spanish talk shows all day.
"Now I use only one crutch; before I was walking with two crutches," said the 49-year-old drywall hanger.
But Escobar had to have another surgery last month, and when he stands up, he said it feels like someone is sticking a knife up the bottom of his feet.
Day after day, confined to his friend's house in Tampa, Escobar's nerves are fraying and his debt ever deepening. Even if insurance does eventually pay his claim, it might be years before he gets a cent.
"Welcome to workers' comp," said Escobar's Orlando-based attorney, John P. Brooks.
In February, Escobar took a fateful step into an unguarded elevator shaft on a Tarpon Springs construction site. The three-story fall brought four surgeries, two evictions and an open-ended sentence into the dreary realm of workers' compensation.
Two months after Escobar's fall, the insurance company for Cantel Homes, the general contractor of the townhome project where Escobar fell, agreed to cover medical expenses, but refused to pay lost wages.
Escobar said that a representative from Security Drywall II drove him to the site and promised to pay him $100 in cash per day. But Cantel contends that the $100 cash does not qualify as "wages" under Florida's workers' compensation rules.
Authorities have continued to investigate the case and later this month, insurance fraud investigators will ask that the state attorney file criminal charges against Gary McQuiston, the owner of Security Drywall II.
The supervisor of the agency's Pinellas office, Lt. Terry Upman, declined to discuss details of the investigation, saying only that they will ask that the prosecutor bring felony "workers' compensation-related" charges against McQuiston.
It is not the first legal trouble for McQuiston, who has not returned phone messages from the St. Petersburg Times.
State records show that shortly before his company began working at Sunset Bay in February 2005, McQuiston had been released from a Pasco County jail.
McQuiston was sentenced to nearly a year in prison for shooting and killing a 450-pound endangered black bear in October 2002. The part-time taxidermist broke into tears at his sentencing hearing later, telling a judge that in the early morning light, he had mistaken the bear for a large wild boar.
But McQuiston's hunting companion, James Humphrey, said McQuiston was well aware of what he had shot.
The judge sentenced McQuiston to 11 months and 29 days in jail, four years of probation and a $1,000 fine, the maximum under his plea agreement. He also had to forfeit his hunting licenses, his right to carry firearms during his probation and the rifle he used to shoot the bear.
Now, as the two investigations into McQuiston's apparent insurance missteps continue, his drywall business seems to be operating as normal.
"It is unfathomable that he still has a license and that contractors will not even check their subs out before hiring them," said Brooks.
But even those who do vet the company would find little reason for concern.
State records show no stop-work orders have been issued, and McQuiston's state and county occupational licenses are in good standing. In mid June, State Farm issued a workers' compensation policy for Security Drywall II.
"We can confirm that they have coverage," said Nina Banister, representative for the Florida Department of Financial Services.
Banister said there are no policies that would prohibit McQuiston from operating or applying for insurance "while the issues are still being examined."
Plus, there is not exactly a vocal contingent calling for punishment.
"What can I do?" said Escobar. He just wants to get back to work, so he can begin chipping away at his debt and sending money back to his family in Mexico.
Escobar clearly believes his fall was a result of problems at the Sunset Bay construction site.
"They do a lot of things wrong on the job and a lot of things not safe," he said.
Just in the few hours he spent at the site, Escobar said it clearly was not "usual" compared to other constructions jobs.
There were no railings along the overhangs or stairs, he said. Instead of scaffolding to hang drywall, they used benches.
Three weeks after his accident, an inspector with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration arrived at the construction site.
While the unguarded elevator shaft had long since been addressed, the inspector noted other serious fall hazards around the site.
Photographs in OSHA's inspection report show several workers up on a 22-foot-high balcony, but no signs of the fall protection or guarding required by federal safety laws.
The inspector noted that Doug Matthews, the president of Cantel Homes, was in the "immediate area" and aware of the violations, but "did nothing to correct the hazard."
Foremen and contractors from two roofing companies and mason and stucco contractors were also interviewed. Like Matthews, they "did nothing," the inspector wrote.
The inspector returned in another three weeks to find that problems persisted.
On March 14, he noted that seven Spanish-speaking workers were installing tiles on a steeply pitched roof. Thirty-one feet above ground, they were each tied off to a single rope knotted to a third floor balcony - a jury-rigged fall protection system made by their Spanish-speaking foreman, the inspector wrote.
Ultimately, five of the six contractors inspected were cited by OSHA. The nine "serious violations" - all fall hazards - collectively carried $39,000 in original penalties. Records show that OSHA settled for $10,575.
The only company not cited was Security Drywall II.