Rockland County District Attorney Thomas P. Zugibe and State Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith today announced that Earl Galbreath Jr. (DOB 01/03/40) of 640 Ashford Avenue, Ardsley, New York has been arrested and arraigned for defrauding employees out of $298,000 in unpaid wages and benefits.

Galbreath is charged with:
• One count of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, class “C” Felony

Galbreath, who conducted his business under the company name of Abelcraft of New York Inc., is alleged to have failed to pay the legally required prevailing wages for 66 construction workers who were renovating a dormitory building at the Rockland Children’s Psychiatric Center in Orangetown.

The Rockland County Special Investigations Unit and the State Labor Department began investigating Galbreath after receiving several complaints that the firm was not paying the employees the required prevailing wage.

“Protecting Rockland County’s labor force is a major priority for this office,” said District Attorney Zugibe. “Insuring that the hard-working men and women of our labor community receive a fair wage for a fair day’s work is an integral part of the American dream. This arrest sends a strong message: all violations of laws involving public works projects in Rockland County will be aggressively prosecuted.”

“This past Labor Day we honored the hard work and the past struggles of our workers, and we were reminded of the importance of enforcing our labor laws against unscrupulous employers who cheat their workers out of their hard earned pay," said State Labor Commissioner Gardner. "With the help of District Attorneys like DA Zugibe, we were able to stop this dishonest contractor and will work together to get every last dollar owed to these workers and their families."

The defendant had entered into a contract in 2008 with the State of New York after submitting the lowest bid to do masonry work. As provided by the New York State Labor Law, and under the terms of this contract, Galbreath was required to pay all of the employees engaged in working at the construction site a prevailing wage as set by the state, depending on the type of work they were performing. He was also required to provide the workers with benefits, such as health insurance, or the pay the cash equivalent of the benefits.

During the time of construction, from July 2008 to February, 2009, the State of New York paid Galbreath for the work completed on the job site falsely believing that he would pay the correct prevailing wage to his workers. Instead, the defendant regularly took money from the State that was due to the employees and pocketed a portion of it in violation of the law.

To cover up the theft, Galbreath falsified payroll information submitted to the State of New York. Certified payrolls submitted by the defendant failed to list which workers were actually working and falsely stated that the company was paying the workers cash in lieu of benefits, when they were not. The certified payrolls also contained false information about which days and how long the employees worked. In some instances, the workers were not paid any salary.

Galbreath was arrested by detectives from Rockland County Special Investigations Unit on a felony arrest warrant and arraigned in the Orangetown Justice Court before the Honorable Judge Phinney and held on $300,000 bail. The defendant is due to return to court on Wednesday, September 8, 2010.

He faces up to fifteen years in state prison.