Legal News

Widows of Aracoma Mine Fire Say Plea Agreement Defies Justice

By Dionne Searcey

A guilty plea in any case can spare the government the expense of prosecuting a lengthy trial but it can often leave victims feeling cheated. Just ask Bernie Madoff's victims who didn't get the satisfaction of seeing him on trial.

A federal judge in West Virginia is set to rule today on whether to accept a plea agreement from a Massey Energy subsidiary, Aracoma Coal, for 10 federal criminal charges tied to a fire that killed two West Virginia miners in 2006. (See the AP story, via Forbes, here and the AP photo of mourners to the left.)

The widows of the two men who died, Don Bragg and Ellery Elvis Hatfield, want U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver to reject the plea deal. They say it would bar prosecution of Massey executives who they think are responsible for the deaths. During the fire a crew of miners ran into thick smoke blocking their escape tunnel, and when they tried to find another way out, Bragg and Hatfield got separated from them and succumbed to the smoke.

Evidence presented during the widows’ civil lawsuit against Richmond, Va.-based Massey, Chief Executive Don Blankenship, Aracoma and another subsidiary made it clear high-level company executives expected the mine to emphasize production over safety, the widows told the AP in January.

“If Massey executives have done nothing wrong and bear no criminal responsibility for the fire that killed Don and Elvis, then why do they need this deal?” Delorice Bragg said to the AP. “It seems to us that the answer is just as simple. If they’re innocent, they don’t.”

Aracoma already agreed in December to pay $2.5 million fine, in addition to pleading to the criminal charges. A related agreement requires a record $1.7 million civil penalty for violations uncovered by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. (And here is a copy of the fatal investigation report by the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training.)

Recently a foreman at the same mine pleaded guilty to not conducting required evacuation drills during a three-month period before the fire, according to this AP story in the Charleston Gazette. David R. Runyon faces up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 for the misdemeanor charge of knowingly violating a federal mine safety standard. In a deal with prosecutors, Runyon also agreed to testify in the federal government’s ongoing criminal investigation of the fire. The judge put off accepting his plea until a July sentencing date.

We're reaching out to Massey for comment and will update the blog with the judge's ruling.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 15, 2009 (boomark / email).