HOMER, N.Y. — The owner of a Cortland County farm has been indicted for child labor violations related to the death of a 14-year-old boy who was killed in a farming accident in July 2015.
Luke Park, owner of the Park Family Farm on East River Road in Homer, was arraigned in Cortland County Court Tuesday afternoon before Judge William Ames.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced in July that his office would pursue a case against Park for allegedly violating child labor laws, endangering the welfare of a child and falsifying unemployment contribution returns.
Park was arraigned Tuesday on 8 felony counts of falsifying business records and filing false unemployment insurance contribution returns.
He was also arraigned on 7 misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child, illegal hours of work for minors, prohibited employment of minors and the willful failure to pay unemployment insurance contributions.
“A 14-year-old child should never have been operating heavy and dangerous machinery,” New York State Attorney General Schneiderman said in a press release Tuesday. “Our labor laws exist to protect children who are working from tragic situations like this. My office will prosecute, to the fullest extent of the law, any employer that places a minor in harm’s way.”
Fourteen-year-old Alex Smith was killed on July 1, 2015, while operating a Skidloader with a hydraulic lift and fork attachment in an attempt to prepare bales of hay for cow feed, according to a complaint filed by the state attorney general's office. Child labor law prohibits minors from using such equipment.
An investigation conducted by the state attorney general's office found that the Park Family Farm allegedly employed other minors on the dairy farm, requiring them to work approximately 60 hours a week, exceeding the 48-hour per week maximum for 16 and 17-year-olds when school is not in session.
Park's next court date is scheduled for Jan. 13.
