The Associated Press is reporting on this, having picked up the story from the Morgantown Dominion Post:
An ex-mine foreman who admitted faking safety inspection reports is suing Patriot Coal Corp. and the Federal No. 2 mine bosses who he claims pressured him to falsify data. John Renner is awaiting sentencing on federal charges. He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg in March 2010, but prosecutors have repeatedly delayed his sentencing, citing his cooperation in an investigation of the mine.
The complaint says mine management pressured Renner to fake methane gas readings on sealed sections of the mine to avoid a shutdown that would have stopped coal production. The managers’ conduct was “atrocious, utterly intolerable in a civilized community and so extreme and outrageous as to exceed all possible bounds of decency,” the complaint charges.
We’ve reported on this before here, here and here, and noted that Federal No. 2 has long been held up by industry, labor and government officials as a model mine. Renner has never been sentenced in his criminal case, and the public has never really been told what’s going on with this investigation.
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Thanks Ken .. been waiting long time on this. I know one of the upper management guys that was named previously in this scandal & justice may finally be served to all involved.
(The lawsuit says Renner, who was fired from the mine, has since struggled with unemployment and is seeking damages for lost wages and benefits, medical expenses and mental anguish) Really??? did he think he should keep his job. He was the one that “pushed” the pen, he knew it was wrong.
I lost a family member in the Sago mine, so his “mental anguish” is small compared to that of ALL the families of the Sago Men..And Now He wants to sue someone, for his loss,, and ALL he is OUT from actions that he himself did.. I hope he gets nothing….. does not deserve it,, he put ALOT of Miners (and their families) lives in danger with his unexcusable actions….