Local NAACP to aid contractor convicted in deadly building collapse

Griffin Campbell, the now-imprisoned demolition contractor in the deadly 2013 building collapse that killed six people, was a "fall guy" for higher-ups with greater guilt, the head of the Philadelphia NAACP charged Wednesday.

Campbell "was only following directions and did what he was told," said Rodney Muhammad, president of the chapter, at a Center City news conference. "It seems to me all the decision-makers at the site were nowhere near the ax of justice when it swung. Only the lower-level people were hurt."

That's why the NAACP will be aiding Campbell in his appeal of his sentence, Muhammad said.

Campbell, 52, of Hunting Park, is appealing his 15- to 30-year prison term, imposed in January after his conviction on six counts of involuntary manslaughter and related charges in the June 5 collapse that also injured 13, one of whom died 23 days later.

The only other person criminally charged was excavator operator Sean Benschop, 45, whom Campbell hired to demolish a building whose wall fell on a Salvation Army thrift store. Benschop is serving 71/2 to 15 years at the prison at Camp Hill, where Campbell is also incarcerated.

Lawyer William D. Hobson, who defended Campbell at his trial, said at the news conference that he wanted to represent him in the appeal as well.

Last spring, Hobson noted that the only two people criminally charged in the case were African American, while the property owner, multimillionaire real estate investor Richard Basciano, and the architect he hired to oversee the work, Plato A. Marinakos Jr., are both white and were not charged.

Hobson said Wednesday that the ongoing civil trail against Basciano and others will show the criminal culpability of people who were directing Campbell in his work at the demolition site.

Campbell's wife, Kim Lee Campbell, 49, of Nicetown, echoed Hobson's remarks about race, saying that it was the two men of color who were "swept under the rug" in the case.

"That's prejudice," she said.

Muhammad did not go that far in an interview Wednesday. He said, "I don't know if race plays a part, but it may be a class situation," meaning that laborers who were only following orders were blamed for mistakes by management.

alubrano@phillynews.com 215-854-4969 @AlfredLubrano