For the second time in as many months, a corrupt concrete testing firm boss tried and failed to kill himself before a pivotal court date. The first attempt occurred at the end of February, days before a jury found Reddy Kancharla guilty of enterprise corruption. (He slit his wrists and swallowed sleeping pills at his offices, but was found by his secretary and survived.) On Tuesday, Kancharla tried again, the day before he was to be sentenced. But once again he couldn't close the deal.
Kancharla tried to hang himself in his Ossining, N.Y., office Tuesday, but was found by his secretary before he died. (It's unclear if it was the same secretary who found him last time.) "Mr. Kancharla made a second effort on his life yesterday at 3 o'clock," his lawyer, Paul Shechtman, told a Manhattan judge during the sentencing. And outside the court the attorney told reporters, "At this time I'm not thinking about the case but about Reddy Kancharla and his family for whom this has become a dark nightmare."
Kancharla's sentencing was postponed indefinitely, but co-defendant Vincent Barone was sentenced to 5-1/3 to 16 years and a $15,000 fine. Both men ran Testwell, a company that faked concrete and steel strength tests at Yankee Stadium, the Freedom Tower, hospitals and schools.
