Riverhead contracting company and its owner face felony charges in prevailing wage case: DA

A Riverhead contracting company and its owner have been indicted for willful failure to pay the prevailing wage rate on a public works contract in the Town of Brookhaven in 2018, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced today.

Robert Terry, 65, of Southampton and his company, Terry Contracting and Materials Inc., located at 1146 Osborn Avenue, were indicted for Willful Failure to Pay the Prevailing Wage Rate, and other related charges, for allegedly misclassifying his employees’ work categories on certified payrolls, shorting workers more than $83,000, according to the district attorney.

According to the investigation, Tierney said, between March and August 2018, Terry was a contractor at the Davis Park Marina Improvement project, a public works contract that required the contractor to pay his employees the proper prevailing wage rate, based on the tasks that they performed on the project.

Moreover, he was responsible for completing certified payrolls that affirmed he paid his employees the proper prevailing wages while they worked on the project, the DA said. Instead, Terry allegedly classified his employees under the wage rate for “laborers,” which is lower than the wage rate for “dock builders,” though the employees were performing tasks necessitating the higher salary rate, Tierney said in a press release this afternoon..

Additionally, even though additional employees of Terry Contracting & Materials, Inc. worked as crane operators on the project, they were allegedly unlawfully omitted from the certified payrolls, according to the press release.

The New York State Department of Labor determined that Terry and his company owe the employees over $83,000 for failing to pay them as dock builders, Tierney said.

Terry and his corporation were arraigned Dec. 12 on the indictment before Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei for one count of Willful Failure to Pay the Prevailing Wage Rate and Supplement, Falsifying a Business Record in the First Degree, both Class E felonies, and Falsifying a Business Record in the Second Degree, a Class A misdemeanor.

“Bob Terry and his company are innocent of the accusations in the indictment which are not proof but merely accusations not proven,” Terry’s attorney, Michael Cornacchia of New York City said in an emailed statement Monday evening. “His family, friends, business associates and others who know Bob know him as a man of integrity with an unblemished record and fully support him, Cornacchia said. “Bob looks forward to having his day in court where his innocence and that of his company will be proven.”

Terry was released on his own recognizance, the district attorney said.

He is due back in court on Jan. 23, Tierney said, and faces 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison if convicted on the top count. 

The case was investigated and is being prosecuted by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office Financial Crimes Bureau, the DA said.

Editor’s note: A criminal charge is an accusation. A person charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.