Mohawk Faces Tough Battle Over Officer's Death

Chatsworth, GA, Sept. 8--Mohawk Industries Inc. prides itself on community relations, but the carpet giant is facing bad publicity in a small town where a close-knit family and the police department blame the company for the death of a rookie officer. Officer Jonathan Cole Martin, 20, had been on the job seven months when his cruiser collided with a metal security gate at Mohawk's Chatsworth plant on April 25. A wrongful death lawsuit his family filed last month says the gate was unsecured and swung open; Mohawk claims the officer crashed into the gate. For years, Mohawk has benefited from good relations with the small communities where it has factories, donating materials, bringing jobs and feeding the tax base. But the Martin case has caused friction in this 4,500-resident north Georgia town, with one of the largest employers fighting with the police department, where the chief is the victim's uncle. Three days after his nephew's death, Police Chief Terry Martin says a Mohawk lawyer told him not to let his officers patrol the facility anymore. Martin refused. "I told them, 'I don't work for Mohawk,'" Martin said. Mohawk general counsel Salvatore Perillo said the company wanted to make sure any officers on the property were safe, but he says the company never told the department not to patrol the area. Perillo said Mohawk will fight the lawsuit. "We are a good citizen, but sometimes regrettable things happen that are beyond your control," said Perillo. "We're confident that our facilities are, in fact, safe." Martin's death followed the death of Kentrell Taylor at Mohawk's Milledgeville facility in July 2002. In that case, an unsecured metal railing fell on top of the 9-year-old boy and killed him while he was waiting for his mother to pick up some wood the company was giving away, according to a lawyer for his family. Since 1972, Mohawk has been cited for at least 135 health and safety violations at its plants nationwide for problems relating to flammable liquids, duty to have fall protection, abrasive wheel machinery and electrical wiring design and protection issues, according to U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration records. None of the violations was at Mohawk's Milledgeville or Chatsworth plants, and only five percent resulted from accidents. Alex Falanga, a lawyer for Taylor's family, said Mohawk responded quickly to the boy's death, agreeing to a $750,000 settlement even before a lawsuit could be filed. "They stepped up to the plate," he said. "Mohawk didn't drag its feet, they didn't cover up." A quick resolution to that case also prevented any ill will in the Milledgeville community. "I think Mohawk did the right thing," Falanga said. In the Martin case, however, Mohawk is refusing to settle. Perillo says the company doesn't believe it did anything wrong. "We feel absolutely no responsibility in his death," Perillo said. "He was performing his duty...but an unfortunate thing happened to him. It's regrettable, but it was just an unfortunate and bizarre accident." The lawsuit says the accident could have been avoided if Mohawk corrected a design defect in the gate that caused it to open unpredictably. Martin family lawyer Emily Brantley said Mohawk knew about concerns with the security gate because of two prior accidents involving the gate, but did not fix the problem. "Someone needs to take responsibility for Cole's death, someone from Mohawk needs to step forward and do the right thing," said Martin's father, Tony Martin, a Georgia State Patrol trooper. On Aug. 30, 2002, eight months before Martin's death, Derrick Maddux of Old Fort, TN, was exiting the facility when he says the gate swung open and struck his vehicle, though he was not seriously injured. Since the lawsuit was filed, a second man, Earnest Ridley, has come forward claiming that the same thing happened to his vehicle two years earlier.