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DoD: No criminal charges in electrocution death

WASHINGTON — No criminal charges will be filed against military contractor KBR Inc. in connection with the electrocution of a Green Beret soldier who died while showering in his barracks in Iraq, the Defense Department said Friday.

Investigators said there was “insufficient evidence to prove or disprove” that anyone was criminally culpable in the January 2008 death of 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth of Pittsburgh. The uproar over his death triggered a review of 17 other electrocution deaths in Iraq and widespread inspections.

Initially, an Army investigator had called Maseth’s death a “negligent homicide,” caused by Houston-based KBR and two of its supervisors, and said it had failed to ensure that “qualified electricians and plumbers” worked on the building where Maseth died, according to an internal document obtained by The Association Press.

On Friday, the Defense Department said that while both contractors and government employees “breached their respective duties of care” none of the breaches alone were “the proximate cause of his death.”

Last week, the Defense Department’s inspector general said that Maseth died when he came in contact with an energized metal shower and hose caused by the failure of an ungrounded water pump located on the roof of the building installed by KBR. The IG said KBR did not ground equipment during installation or report improperly grounded equipment during routine maintenance, nor did it have standard operating procedures for inspections.

But the inspector general also said that military commanders and key decision-makers failed to ensure that renovations and maintenance were properly performed.

KBR, based in Houston, has denied any responsibility in Maseth’s death. A spokeswoman has said that KBR informed the military of the absence of grounding and bonding in the structure where Maseth died nine months before his death.

Maseth’s family has an ongoing lawsuit against KBR.

Last fall, Gen. David Petraeus, then the commander in Iraq, ordered an inspection of about 90,000 U.S.-maintained facilities in Iraq by a task force called Task Force SAFE. Of the 67,000 inspected so far, about 18,000 have been found to have major deficiencies. About 11,000 of the major deficiencies have been repaired, according to the task force.