Uninsured Roofing Firm Owner Sentenced for Attempted Cover-Up of Workplace Death

The owner of a New York roofing company has been sentenced for attempting to cover up an employee’s on-the-job death.

Law enforcement investigators determined that Jeremiah Wiedemann, owner of Wiedemann Sons Roofing, had moved the victim to a different location to conceal that he had been working for him in Northampton at the time of his accident.

Wiedemann, who had not purchased workers’ compensation insurance for his employees, also directed other workers to clean up the scene of the injury to further obscure the work-related nature of the accident.

Wiedemann pled guilty to tampering with physical evidence and failure to secure workers’ compensation. Last week he was sentenced by Judge Chad W. Brown in Fulton County Supreme Court to a term of five years probation and ordered to pay a fine and surcharge.

On May 12, 2023, the Northville Police Department responded to a 911 call from Wiedemann reporting a person had fallen near the Batchellerville Bridge in Saratoga County. The person, who was in and out of consciousness, was airlifted to Albany Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries within days.

The investigation by the Northville Polic, Saratoga County Sheriff, and the New York State Police ultimately revealed that the victim had not, in fact, been injured at the location reported by Wiedemann, but rather at a construction site in the Northampton, where Wiedemann’s contracting business was engaged in a roof replacement.

New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang and Northville Police Chief Rick Richardson announced the sentencing.

“This defendant went to egregious lengths to conceal his decision to prioritize profits over people, rather than complying with the law to protect workers in the event of workplace injury,” said Lang.

Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance