Ex-Massey mine security chief sentenced to prison

[Lasher]

Last edited Thu Mar 1, 2012, 12:27 PM - Edit history (1)

The former security chief at a West Virginia coal mine where 29 workers were killed in a 2010 accident was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison for lying to federal agents and obstructing an investigation.

Hughie Elbert Stover of Clear Fork, West Virginia, had faced a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison after being convicted last October of making false statements to FBI and Mine Safety and Health Administration investigators and obstructing the federal probe into the cause of the Upper Big Branch disaster.

An explosion at the mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, which was owned by now-defunct Massey Energy, killed 29 miners in April 2010. It was the worst accident in the US mining industry in four decades.

"Today's sentence sends a clear message that when a person obstructs an investigation - especially an investigation as critical as UBB - there will be consequences," US Attorney Booth Goodwin said in a statement.

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/ex-massey-mine-security-chief-sentenced-to-prison-2012-03-01

[cindyperry2010]

1. should have gotten much

more but if he will testify against higher ups and get them injail then maybe it will be even

[atreides1]

2. I doubt he's going to testify

Prosecutor's as a rule don't ask for the maximum time if they have someone who's willing to testify!

[cindyperry2010]

3. true

just was hopeful that maybe something would have come out of it

[Lasher]

6. Don Blankenship in chains and penniless forever.

That is my fondest hope.

[Petrushka]

4. Not a WSJ subscriber and, so, wasn't able to read the entire article . . . so . . .

. . . I found another report on the same subject here ---> http://www.miningweekly.com/article/ex-massey-mine-security-chief-sentenced-to-prison-2012-03-01

[Lasher]

5. Thanks, I will edit the OP.

I'm not a WSJ subscriber either but was able to see the entire article by going in from a Google news search. But by hitting the link I furnished in the OP I got the same abbreviated teaser you saw.

Note to self: Don't use WSJ as a source anymore.