4 Massey supervisors charged with federal crimes stemming from deadly 2006 mine fire

Massey workers face criminal charges in W.Va. fire

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Four supervisors with troubled Massey Energy Co. have been charged with federal crimes related to a coal mine fire that killed two West Virginians in 2006, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

The men are accused of failing to conduct mandatory safety drills at Massey’s Aracoma Alma No. 1 mine in 2005 and 2006, said Booth Goodwin, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia.

“Workers shouldn’t be forced to earn their living in illegal, unsafe conditions,” Goodwin said in a statement.

The four were charged in a federal information. Because that requires consent from a defendant, it typically signals a plea agreement has been reached.

Named in the information are: Donald Hagy, Jr., 47, of Gilbert; Terry Shadd, 37, of Chapmanville; Edward R. Ellis, Jr., 38, of Justice; and Michael A. Plumley, 38, of Delbarton.

No one answered Ellis’ telephone and the others did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

“We expect all of our miners to follow state and federal laws as well as company policies, which are often more stringent,” Massey said in statement. “At the same time, we must recognize that the miners who have been charged have due process rights and are presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

The charges stem from a January 2006 fire at the Logan County mine where Don Bragg and Ellery Elvis Hatfield died after getting lost in thick smoke.

Bruce Stanley, a lawyer who represented the widows of Bragg and Hatfield, said the federal prosecutor should use the charges to tell Congress that “current law is insufficient to pursue all persons responsible for such blatantly criminal and deadly conditions.”

The charges are the latest to stem from the fire.

In April 2009, Massey subsidiary Aracoma Coal Co. agreed pay $4.2 million in criminal fines and civil penalties after pleading guilty to 10 criminal charges stemming from the Aracoma fire. U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver approved Aracoma Coal’s plea deal despite a provision that spared Massey officials and the Richmond, Va.-based company from prosecution. Lower-level Massey employees, like those currently charged, were not immune from prosecution.

Also last year, former Massey foreman David R. Runyon was fined $1,000 and agreed to give up state-issued underground mine foreman’s certificate after pleading guilty for not conducting safety drills at the mine. He faced five federal charges. Runyon was the foreman of a crew that escaped the fire.

Thursday’s charges are the latest problem for Massey.

The Richmond, Va.-based coal company is facing unrelated criminal and civil investigations of an explosion that killed 29 men at its Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County. The April 5 blast is the nation’s worst coal mining disaster in 40 years and has led to an outpouring of criticism that Massey puts profits ahead of safety.

The company has steadfastly denied that accusation.

Earlier Thursday, an electrician at another Massey mine died after being run over by a piece of heavy equipment, the second such death at one of the company’s mines this year.

Separately, prosecutors on Thursday also charged two people from another coal company with falsifying training records for truck drivers at a surface mine.

Charged were John R. Wright, 65, of Whitman and Jeffrey Potter, 44, of Crum. Neither man returned telephone messages left at their homes. No one answered the phone at Legacy Resources, operator of the Synergy Surface Mine No. 1, where the pair is accused of faking records.