Suffield Contractor Sentenced In Vernon Trench Collapse Case

VERNON, CT — A Suffield-based contractor and a company employee Friday were sentenced in connection with a fatal trench accident at a Vernon construction site in 2022.

Dennis Botticello, 69, of Suffield and Glen Locke, 67, of Somers, each received a two-year suspended sentence with two years of probation from Judge Kathleen E. McNamara in Rockville Superior Court. Tolland Judicial District State's Attorney Matthew C. Gedansky had recommended 10-year sentences, suspended after five, along with three years of probation.

Both had entered guilty pleas to a second-degree manslaughter charge on April 4.

The case involves the death of 56-year-old East Windsor resident Dennis Slater, who was an employee of Botticello Inc.

The accident took place at a construction site on Bolton Branch Road in Vernon on July 22, 2022. An investigation showed that the "proper, legal safeguards were not in place" before an 8-foot-deep trench caved in at the site and buried Slater. Police reports show that emergency personnel and construction workers were able to free Slater from the trench and provide medical aid and Slater was transported to Manchester Memorial Hospital by ambulance. He later died of his injuries, case records show, according to police reports.

Botticello owns Botticello Inc., and Locke was the equipment operator working near Slater at the time of the trench collapse.

A joint investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Vernon Police Department determined that the defendants violated OSHA standards in the industry by not having the required safety equipment and other equipment to prevent trench cave-ins. In January 2023, OSHA fined the company more than $375,000 in connection with the fatal trench collapse.

Previously in 2015, OSHA investigators identified four serious violations related to trenching work by Botticello Inc. at a Stafford work site.

The plea agreement allowed each defendant to argue for a lesser sentence.