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Pregnant Teen Dies in CA Vineyard, Guilty Parties Get Community Service

  • Spence Cooper
  • May 2, 2012

Two California farm supervisors charged in the heat-related death of a pregnant teen farmworker who worked as slave labor in the fields, were sentenced to community service and probation, angering farmworker advocates who had called for jail time.

Maria Isavel, the pregnant teen farmworker who died, had been helping to take care of younger siblings. She made and sold tamales, and toiled in the fields, earning only about $4 a day. Her fiance worked alongside her and testified that no one called 911 when the teen collapsed.

The defendant Maria De Los Angeles Colunga, the owner of now-defunct Merced Farm Labor, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of failing to provide shade. She was given 40 hours of community service, will serve three years of probation and pay a $370 fine.

The defendant’s brother, who was the company’s former safety coordinator, pleaded guilty to a felony count of failing to follow safety regulations that resulted in death. He was sentenced to 480 hours of community service, five years of probation and a $1,000 fine.

Inspectors later found that Merced Farm Labor failed to provide water, shade and safety training. The plea deals also banned both from ever again working in farm labor contracting.

“She was desperate and she realized that on the other side, in the United States, she could improve her life,” Maria Isavel, the teen’s her brother Roberto Valentin said in a phone interview from Oaxaca.

Working in almond orchards, Isavel’s fiance saved enough for a silver engagement ring. But Isavel died before they were married.

“For them, Maria Isavel was only another farm laborer whom they could replace easily,” Doroteo Jimenez, the uncle of the girl, said in Spanish through an interpreter in court before the sentencing. “For us, the loss was eternal.”

It’s really apparent that the entire system has failed Maria Isavel and the other farmworkers who died in the field, said Merlyn Calderon, vice president of United Farm Workers of America. “This is an unjust sentence for the negligence demonstrated.”

Pregnant Teen Dies in CA Vineyard, Guilty Parties Get Community ServiceNaturally, Maria Isavel’s family was outraged, and her family and dozens of supporters had called for stricter punishment.

“Justice failed us,” said Jose Luis Vasquez Jimenez, her brother, who joined a dozen supporters who stood silently outside the courtroom holding Maria Isavel’s photograph.

“We hoped for a stronger sentence, so the farm employers could learn to respect farmworkers,” he said. “My sister is in my heart and I feel sad that nothing was done to punish those who led to her death.”

In 2005, California introduced the first heat regulations in the nation to protect the state’s 450,000 seasonal workers, but activists claim the regulations are routinely ignored.

Since the teen’s death, Cal-OSHA has tightened enforcement of heat regulations and offered training to farm employers and contractors, said Len Welsh, the agency’s chief.

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