ON THE HEELS OF TWO SPECTACULAR CRANE COLLAPSES IN NEW YORK CITY, a chief crane inspector with the Dept. of Buildings was arrested Friday and charged with taking thousands of dollars in bribes from a construction crane company.

Hastily-dressed James Delayo, 60, is shown
leaving the courthouse Friday afternoon.
(New York Times photo)

James Delayo, a 26-year employee, is accused of falsifying business records, offering false instruments for filing, tampering with public records and receiving unlawful gratuities from the Long Island firm.

Among other charges, he is accused of filing false inspection reports  of inspections that never took place and giving questions and answers to crane operator applicants in advance of their licensing examinations.  Earlier this year another long-time employee was exposed as having issued operator’s licenses to more than 200 people who had failed the examination.

The city says that they do not belive that Delayo’s activities are related to the two recent collapses on March 15 and May 30.  But it is indicative of the depth of corruption that lies within the Building Department and more investigations are continuing.

Read the full story from Newsday HERE.
The New York Times has MORE.

The Associated Press filed this video report:

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