Griffin Campbell pleads innocence in collapse that killed six.
For five hours Thursday, demolition contractor Griffin Campbell sat in the witness box and tried to negate 11 days of witnesses who blamed him for the 2013 collapse that crushed the Salvation Army thrift store in Center City, killing six people and injuring 13.
It was a varied list: federal job safety officers and city construction inspectors, several of Campbell’s own employees, the excavator operator he hired, and, most of all, the architect Campbell said gave him the biggest job of his career and directed his every move on the demolition site.
By turns combative and plaintive, the 51-year-old Hunting Park contractor turned frequently to face the eight women and four men on the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury.
“If I thought at any time, at any point, that someone was going to get hurt, I would have shoveled horse manure to feed my family before I would put anyone in danger,” Campbell responded to a question from his lawyer, William D. Hobson.
Campbell insisted that the collapse of an unsupported wall remaining from the four-story building he was demolishing at 2136-38 Market St. was a horrible accident, not the result of a reckless disregard for safety.
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