Four foremen from Massey Energy’s Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine pleaded guilty this afternoon to mine safety crimes, in a move that federal prosecutors have said ends their probe of the January 2006 fire that killed miners Don Bragg and Ellery Hatfield.
There’s previous coverage of this case here, here, and here.
Today’s guilty pleas were not unexpected, but the hearing before U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. did produce a few interesting bits of information:
– Three of the foremen — Donald R. Hagy, Edward R. Ellis Jr., and Michael A. Plumley — all admitted that they not only failed to conduct required escapeway drills at the mine — the crime they were charged with – but also faked official record book entries to cover up that crime. Not conducting the drills is a misdemeanor, punishable with up to 1 year in jail and a $100,000 fine. Lying in the record books is a felony, which could draw up to 5 years in jail and a $250,000 fine.
– The fourth foreman, Terry L. Shadd, said he did not fake a record book entry during the period covered by the charges against him — May 2005 to July 2005. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Smith declined to comment on whether Shadd faked a record book entry during some other period of time. Like the other three foremen, Shadd was charged only with not conducting the required mine evacuation drills.
– Two of the four plea deals — those with Ellis and Plumley — were actually reached more than a year ago, but formal charges weren’t brought until earlier this month.
It’s worth pointing out that Massey’s Aracoma Coal Co. subsidiary already pleaded guilty and paid a $2.5 million criminal fine related to the fatal 2006 fire. Charges against the four foremen who pleaded guilty today did not reference the fire, as with the previous plea agreement with another Aracoma foreman, David R. Runyon.
In the cases of Plumley (who was the foreman on the section where Bragg and Hatfield worked) and Ellis, the charging documents did reference their not having conducted escapeway drills during the period ending Jan. 19, 2006, the day of the fire.
The Bragg and Hatfield families have complained all along that federal prosecutors didn’t take any charges further up the corporate ladder at Massey, and today, family attorney Bruce Stanley noted that at least three of the foremen were not charged with the felonies they admitted to in court:
Although, I am not a criminal lawyer, my understanding is that falsification of record books is a felony. If so, the Government should have made the appropriate charge. By the same token, surely no one can seriously believe that upper management at Aracoma was not acutely aware of the criminal condition of the mine. Yet only two widows and a few lowly foremen have been asked to foot any of the human cost of production over safety. Something is sorely wrong with the entire picture.
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