ELLENVILLE – A fine from late last year has recently come back to bite the owners of the Nevele Grande Resort yet again. After being fined $38,596 last September for lapses in its carrying of worker's compensation insurance, the Nevele was charged by the Ulster County District Attorney's office with a Class E felony, to which the corporation owning the resort, Nevele Hotel LLC, pled guilty, adding an additional $5,000 fine to the pile.

If an employer with more than five employees does not carry worker's compensation insurance, it can be charged with a felony in New York State, according to the State Workers' Compensation Board, the organization which issued the lapse-fines.

"[The Nevele] had a claim from a worker in 2005, where someone was injured and the Nevele was not carrying insurance," explained the board's spokesman Joe Cavalcante in an interview last year. "So that claim had to be paid from a special fund called the Uninsured Employers Fund. That claim was for $16,446. That, and then…three periods of non-compliance, when you put the dollar amounts together, the Nevele owes $38,596."

Once the fines were issued, the board also issued the business a stop-work order, which never actually took effect because it was rescinded as soon as the resort obtained insurance.

"We were ordering them to close because they weren't carrying the insurance," said Cavalcante in an interview this past Tuesday. "Now, when that happens, we refer the case sometimes to the district attorney for the county. And in this case, District Attorney [Holley] Carnright chose to prosecute the Class E felony…It elevates the severity of the infraction when the district attorney prosecutes for a felony."

"It is important that employees in Ulster County be protected and that businesses here comply with this law," said Carnright in a prepared statement. "The businesses and taxpayers of Ulster County should not have to pick up the hotel's cost for its injured workers."

According to Cavalcante, charging the hotel with a Class E felony now opens the door for their being charged with a Class D felony should they repeat the offense. Doing so raises the seriousness of the infraction, and consequently raises the amount with which they could be fined. He said that a Class D felony conviction could carry a fine of anywhere between $10,000 and $50,000.

"We don't want to see them lapse again — they've lapsed a couple times in the past," said Cavalcante. "Our goal here at the comp board is to simply encourage and ensure employers maintain compensation insurance."

Phone calls made to the Nevele Grand Resort to discuss this story were not returned.