Family of teen farm worker heat death victim,
Oaxacan community & UFW demand local
Judge dismiss felony plea bargain deal
FRESNO, CA – Family members of the 17-year-old female farm worker who died of heat stroke after working in vineyards for nine hours under sweltering heat in 2008 are joining the United Farm Workers and the Fresno-area Oaxacan community to demand a Stockton judge reject a plea bargain for two of the three defendants charged with felonies in the death of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez. The appeal will come during a news conference at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 1, at the office of Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indigena Oaxaqueno (CBDIO), 744 North. Abby St. in Fresno.
On May 14, 2008, Vasquez Jimenez, an immigrant from Oaxaca, collapsed after nine hours toiling in a vineyard near Farmington in San Joaquin County. There was no nearby water or shade. Instead of calling emergency responders, an employee of Merced Farm Labor Contractors told Vasquez Jimenez’s fiancé and the father of her unborn child to take her to a clinic in Lodi. By then, her core temperature was 108 degrees on a day when the state work safety agency issued a heat-danger warning to employers. She died two days later.
In January, defense lawyers and prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain for officials of the now-defunct labor contractor firm for multiple violations of California’s heat regulation issued in 2005 by Gov. Schwarzenegger after a campaign by the UFW. According to news reports, under the deal the defendants may avoid incarceration in exchange for probation and community service. Jimenez’s relatives, the Oaxacan community and UFW are petitioning for the judge to decline the plea deal.
WHO: Doroteo Jiménez, uncle of the 17-year old farm worker who died; UFW organizer Antonio Cortes; Leoncio Vásquez, Executive Director of Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño; Juan Santiago, President of Comité Popular de Coatecas Altas; Agustín Hernández, President of Asociación de la Pelota Mixteca.
WHAT: News conference demanding San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Michael Garrigan rejects a plea bargain in the criminal case against two defendants accused of involuntary manslaughter in the heat stroke death in 2008 of 17-year-old farm worker Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez.
WHEN: Tuesday, March 1, 11:30 a.m.
WHERE: CBDIO office, 744 North. Abby St. Fresno 94701.
Click to see chronology on heat death of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez