Ex-foreman who faked safety records sues Patriot

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — An ex-mine foreman who admitted faking safety inspection reports is suing Patriot Coal Corp. and the Federal No. 2 mine bosses who he claims pressured him to falsify data.

John Renner is awaiting sentencing on federal charges. He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg in March 2010, but prosecutors have repeatedly delayed his sentencing, citing his cooperation in an investigation of the mine.

The Dominion Post (http://bit.ly/x50TZY) says Renner sued St. Louis-based Patriot, subsidiary Eastern Associated Coal LLC, and several employees in Monongalia County Circuit Court last week, including his former supervisors and others identified only as John Doe.

The complaint says mine management pressured Renner to fake methane gas readings on sealed sections of the mine to avoid a shutdown that would have stopped coal production. The managers' conduct was "atrocious, utterly intolerable in a civilized community and so extreme and outrageous as to exceed all possible bounds of decency," the complaint charges.

Patriot spokeswoman Janine Orf didn't immediate return a message Friday.

Renner, 41, of Granville, faces as much as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for making false statements and certifications under federal mine safety laws.

The charge stemmed from a Jan 24, 2010, inspection that Renner claimed to have made on a sealed area at the mine near Fairview. Though he recorded numbers for methane and oxygen levels, Renner later acknowledged he didn't do the inspection.

Federal regulations have required seal monitoring because of a January 2006 methane explosion in a sealed section of International Coal Group's Sago Mine. Twelve men were trapped for more than 40 hours by the blast and died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Only one survived.

The massive longwall operation at Federal No. 2 has more than 90 seals, but Renner told investigators only a handful routinely caused problems.

In a regulatory filing in 2010, the company acknowledged it was under investigation. It said federal investigators had demanded information about methane gas detectors used at the mine since July 2008.

The lawsuit says Renner, who was fired from the mine, has since struggled with unemployment and is seeking damages for lost wages and benefits, medical expenses and mental anguish.

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Information from: The Dominion Post, http://www.dominionpost.com