Only in New York: Engineer Lies, Baby Dies, Engineer Walks

If your co-op or condo is undertaking mandated Local Law 11 facade repairs, keep in mind that there’s a right way and a wrong way to do this critical work. This is a story about the wrong way – the way that gets people killed.

Maqsood Faruqi, 55, pleaded guilty to filing a false statement in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday – and received probation, even though his fake inspection report on the facade of an Upper West Side building led to the death of a child, the New York Post reports.

Without visiting the Esplanade Manhattan assisted-living facility in 2011, Maqsood filed a report claiming he had inspected the building, reviewed prior reports, and found it to be safe. Four years later, on May 17, 2015, a window ledge fell from the building and killed 2-year-old Greta Greene, who was sitting on a bench with her grandmother.

Esplanade Venture Partnership, which owns the nearly century-old building at the corner of West End Avenue and 74th Street, was cited by the Department of Buildings for failing to maintain the property. The company received a $1,000 fine.