Judge Orders Payment of $350K in Restitution Following Worker's Death

Thursday, July 14, 2016 | 0

A federal judge has ordered a scrap-processing company based in Rockford to pay $350,000 in restitution to the family of a man killed at one of its plants.

Behr Iron & Steel Inc. also was placed on five years of probation under the sentence handed down Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Federal prosecutors charged the company with violations of Occupational Safety and Health Administration requirements in connection with the death of worker Reynaldo Hernandez-Ortega, following a March 2014 accident at Behr’s plant in South Beloit.

Hernandez-Ortega, 39, was cleaning a discharge pit for a metal-shredding machine when his arm was caught and he was pulled into machinery, the Rockville Register Star reported. Behr's plant recycles items such as refrigerators and cars. 

"This isn't the turn of the century. This should never happen in 2014 in this country," U.S. Magistrate Judge Iain D. Johnston said during the sentencing.

The company has already paid $268,000 through a workers' compensation settlement and $19,369 in workers' compensation expenses, according to court documents the Register Star cited.

In addition, the company paid $520,000 in fines to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and agreed to correct 36 safety violations.