Tagged: Massey Mine Investigation

A former foreman for Massey Energy has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the federal criminal investigation of last year's deadly coal mine disaster in West Virginia.

Thomas Harrah, 45, admits in a plea agreement (see below) to faking the foreman's credentials he used at the Upper Big Branch mine and then lying about it to federal agents.

One year ago tonight, mine rescuers discovered the remains of the last four missing coal miners deep inside Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia.

There had been hope that the four had made it to refuge chambers and were still alive. Optimistic rescuers carried four sets of breathing apparatus with them, hoping they would be used to bring the miners safely to the surface. The bodies of 25 other miners were found four days earlier.

A new lawsuit filed by the widow of a victim of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster runs counter to claims by government officials that all but one of the 29 miners killed died instantly and without suffering.

The lawsuit was filed in the circuit court in Boone County, W.Va., by Geneva Lynch. Her husband, William Roosevelt Lynch, was among nine Massey Energy coal miners riding in a mantrip — or shuttle car — within two miles of the entrance of the mine when the April 5, 2010, explosion occurred.

The criminal investigation into last April's deadly coal mine explosion in West Virginia has produced a second set of charges.

But, like the first, the new two-count criminal "information" just filed by the U.S. Attorney in Charleston, W. Va., does not directly involve the April 5 blast at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine, which killed 29 mine workers and injured two others.

Federal agents arrested a Massey Energy chief of security Monday on charges of lying to the FBI and obstructing the criminal investigation into last year's deadly mine disaster in West Virginia.

Hughie Elbert Stover, 60, of Clear Fork, W.Va., was indicted on Feb. 25. The indictment is the first in the mine disaster investigation and was unsealed after Stover's arrest Monday.