Berkeley balcony builder loses court challenge against D.A.

A judge on Thursday rejected a request for a temporary restraining order against prosecutors by the company that built the Berkeley apartment complex where six people died in a balcony collapse.

Judge Evelio Grillo of Alameda County Superior Court said Segue Construction Inc. of Pleasanton had not shown evidence that it would suffer “irreparable harm” if the district attorney’s investigators were to inspect the balcony and a second rotted deck without the company’s participation.

The tests are part of a criminal investigation into the June 16 collapse of a rotted-out balcony at the apartment complex at 2020 Kittredge St., in which six people were killed and seven were injured.

In court Thursday, Victoria Ersoff, an attorney for Segue, said the company wanted to preserve evidence for both the criminal case and lawsuits likely to be filed over the collapse.

Assistant District Attorney Micheal O’Connor disagreed, saying, Forensic examination of evidence could hardly be described as tampering.

O’Connor wrote in a court filing that any court injunction “controlling a criminal investigation would infringe on the powers of the executive branch” and “fails to account for the interests of the public in general and of the victims of the collapse in particular.”