Feds indict Ky. mine company, officials

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted a coal company and three officials at a Harlan County mine where an underground miner was killed in a roof fall last year.

The 32-count indictment issued Wednesday in London charges Manalapan Mining Company and three officials with violating federal mine safety laws related to underground mine roof structures and dangerous electric cables.

The indictment says records of pre-shift inspections kept by the supervisors dating from June 13 to June 28 were falsified. On June 29, 46-year-old David Partin died at the P-1 mine when he was crushed by a roof collapse.

A spokesman at Manalapan Mining did not return a call for comment on the indictments Wednesday afternoon.

The indictment arrived on the same day that a former superintendent at the West Virginia mine where 29 workers were killed in a 2010 explosion was charged in federal court. Gary May is charged with conspiracy to defraud the government, and faces accusations of falsifying safety records at the Upper Big Branch mine.

The indictments in Kentucky against Manalapan Mining name the P-1 mine's superintendent, Joseph Miniard, operations manager Jefferson Davis, and second shift foreman Bryant Massingale. The three supervisors "failed to report and record hazardous conditions" at the mine and "aided and abetted one another" in violating federal safety rules, the indictment says.

The indictment also names Manalapan in four counts and says the company allowed "miners to work under the unsupported roof" in a section of the P-1 mine.

Miniard, 45, of Smith, Ky., faces 18 counts related to the pre-shift inspections at the mine. Miniard was designated to countersign the reports, and he signed them "knowing that the pre-shift examiner had failed to report and to record hazardous conditions," according to the indictment.

Massingale, 52, of Cawood, conducted pre-shift inspections and faces seven counts related to the inspections that were allegedly falsified. Davis, 53, of Harlan, and the other men face three counts for failing to follow the mine's federally-approved roof control plan, allowing workers to work in hazardous conditions and for allowing miners to use equipment in the dangerous conditions.

The men are due in federal court in London on March 13 for arraignments.

The federal charges range from a maximum of one year in prison for some of the counts and up to five years in prison for the counts related to the false records, along with fines up to $250,000 per count.

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