Labor & Employment Law

Massey Security Chief Arrested, Indicted

By James Parks

The chief of security for the Upper Big Branch Mine has been arrested and charged with two felonies for allegedly lying to the FBI and obstructing justice in the investigation of the West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 29 miners last April.

The Charleston Gazette reports that Hughie Elbert Stover was charged last week by a grand jury in an indictment that was unsealed today. U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said Stover was charged with making false statements to federal agents investigating allegations that security guards at Upper Big Branch routinely warned mine workers when federal inspectors arrived at the mine.

Goodwin also said the indictment alleges that Stover had an unnamed person dispose of thousands of pages of security-related documents stored in a Massey building near the Upper Big Branch Mine.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration?s (MSHA) investigation of the explosion found evidence of poor maintenance as the cause of the explosion.

The Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., is owned by Richmond-based Massey Energy Co., which had been cited for numerous safety violations. Stover works for Performance Coal Co., Inc., a Massey subsidiary. 

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 28, 2011 (boomark / email).