FALL RIVER — The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office today announced that Thomas J. McCoog, Sr. and Franklin Analytical Services, Inc., an environmental cleanup contractor, pled guilty to reckless assault and battery causing serious bodily injury after an asbestos abatement worker fell 30 feet to a concrete floor while working without fall protection at the former Revere Copper factory in New Bedford in October 2022.
McCoog, Amy Franklin McCoog, and the company also pled guilty to an additional 96 counts of violating the Massachusetts Clean Air Act by conducting illegal asbestos abatement operations across Bristol, Essex, Norfolk, and Plymouth counties between 2021 and 2022. The locations of the environmental offenses were Dartmouth Middle School, a Dartmouth Taekwondo studio, industrial sites in New Bedford, Fall River, and North Andover, waste transfer stations in Taunton and Stoughton, and numerous towns along Route 24.
“Franklin Analytical Services’ reckless disregard for its workers’ safety led to one of their employees sustaining permanent, life-altering injuries,”said AG Campbell. “While no court order could ever undo the damage caused, I am grateful for the court’s decision to hold this company and its owners accountable, especially by prohibiting them from doing asbestos abatement work in the Commonwealth.”…