The defense in the fatal Deutsche Bank building fire filed court documents yesterday alleging that key evidence has been withheld in the case. Lawyers for the four defendants — three construction supervisors and a demolition subcontractor, the John Galt Corporation — said that the prosecution failed to disclose “specific exonerating evidence” during the grand jury hearing that lead to the defendants’ indictment. In their filings, the lawyers claim that the additional evidence “directly contradicts the prosecution’s theory” that the defendants are culpable in the deaths of two firemen killed during the Aug. 18, 2007, blaze. The Bronx-based John Galt Corporation, along with two affiliated firms, filed a foreclosure suit in New York State Supreme Court against the property’s owner, the city-state agency Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and other entities, seeking earnings of $19.6 million, The Real Deal first reported last week.

Exactly two years after a deadly fire broke out at the Deutsche Bank
building in Lower Manhattan a demolition contractor charged with
manslaughter in the blaze has sued to foreclose on nearly $20 million
in mechanic’s liens on the building. The Bronx-based John Galt Corporation, along with two affiliated firms, filed the foreclosure suit in New York State Supreme Court Tuesday against
the property’s owner, the city-state agency Lower Manhattan Development
Corporation; the demolition construction manager Bovis Lend Lease LMB
and other entities. Galt is seeking payment of $19.6 million allegedly remaining unpaid
from a total of $73.7 million earned from the decontamination and
deconstruction work at the bank building at 130 Liberty Street. [more]