Former coal company chief Don Blankenship is appealing a case that resulted in a one-year prison sentence.In U.S. District Court in Beckley on Thursday,…
Former coal company chief Don Blankenship is appealing a case that resulted in a one-year prison sentence.
In U.S. District Court in Beckley on Thursday, the ex-Massey Energy CEO filed his notice of appeal to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Wednesday, Blankenship was sentenced to the maximum penalties of a year in prison and a $250,000 fine for conspiring to willfully violate mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch Mine.
The southern West Virginia coal mine exploded in 2010, killing 29 men.
A jury convicted him of the misdemeanor on Dec. 3.
Judge Irene Berger declined to let Blankenship stay free on a $1 million bond while he appeals the case.
A judge has ruled that an ex-energy company CEO does not have to pay $28 million in restitution related to a mine explosion in 2010 that killed 29 men.
In her order issued Monday, Judge Irene Berger said ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship doesn’t have to pay Alpha Natural Resources for legal fees paid for former Massey employees, cooperation with investigators and fines.
Blankenship was convicted Dec. 3 of a misdemeanor conspiracy to willfully violate mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch Mine. The southern West Virginia coal mine exploded in 2010.
Berger wrote that Alpha incurred the financial hardships at least a year after Blankenship’s indictment period, after Alpha bought Massey in 2011 and voluntarily entered a non-prosecution agreement with the government.
Blankenship’s sentencing is Wednesday. He faces up to a year in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Prosecutors want a year in prison and a $250,000 fine for convicted ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who ran a West Virginia coal mine that was the…
Prosecutors want a year in prison and a $250,000 fine for convicted ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who ran a West Virginia coal mine that was the site of a deadly explosion.
In a sentencing memorandum in federal court Monday, prosecutors said a shorter sentence could only be interpreted as declaring that mine safety laws aren’t to be taken seriously.
Prosecutors wrote that Upper Big Branch Mine was a powder keg 1,000 feet below the surface, primed to blow at any time. The mine exploded in 2010, killing 29 men.
Blankenship was convicted Dec. 3 of a misdemeanor conspiracy to willfully violate mine safety standards at the mine.
In their memorandum, Blankenship’s attorneys say he shouldn’t receive more than probation and a fine. They say they intend to appeal. Defense attorneys included letters from people commending him.
Lawyers for convicted ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship say he can withhold personal financial information under a constitutional right to remain silent during sentencing.
Blankenship’s attorneys cited the 5th Amendment in a Beckley federal court filing Friday.
Prosecutors say Blankenship is violating criminal procedure rules and restitution laws. They say they can’t tell if he anticipated fines or restitution and altered his finances accordingly.
Blankenship opposes prosecutors’ push to make him pay $28 million in restitution to Alpha Natural Resources. The now-bankrupt coal company bought Massey in 2011.
Blankenship was convicted Dec. 3 of a misdemeanor conspiracy to willfully violate mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch Mine, where an explosion killed 29 men in 2010.
He faces up to one year in prison and maximum fine of $250,000.
Federal prosecutors say they oppose a request for a delay in the sentencing of Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship following his mine safety conspiracy conviction.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Ruby said in a court filing on Wednesday that the sentencing of Blankenship should not be delayed.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that attorneys are currently arguing over whether Blankenship should also pay restitution to compensate victims of the case for any losses. Ruby says that prosecutors agree that matters about restitution payments by Blankenship should be handled through a hearing separate from his April 6 sentencing hearing.
Blankenship was convicted Dec. 3 of a misdemeanor conspiracy to willfully violate mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch Mine. He faces up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Here in central Appalachia, where coal reigns supreme, many people said the trial of Don Blankenship was something they had never imagined.
Never before has a top American coal executive been convicted of a crime related to the deaths of miners.
Cameras aren’t allowed in federal court for criminal trials. Two local artists, Rob Cleland and Jeff Pierson, were hired by the media to capture the trial.
As a sketch artist for the Charleston Gazette-Mail and West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Pierson spent 11 weeks drawing the trial of Don Blankenship. Pierson isn’t a seasoned courtroom artist. He earns his living as an art teacher. He’s also illustrated children’s books and painted outdoor murals. In a lot of his art, people are often in movement, playing the fiddle or dancing.
Credit Jeff Pierson
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Pierson’s self portrait.
At first glance, Pierson’s drawings from the Blankenship trial are quite different from the sketches of most courtroom artists. For one thing, he used a lot of expressive blue and red colors. And the faces he drew are vivid with emotion.
“I tend to exaggerate things. And going into this trial, I had to make sure that I kept my drawings very realistic, as opposed to caricature or exaggeration. But with a man of this nature, he is kind of a cartoon or a caricature, I had to be really careful not to do that. But I also think you can capture someone’s expression a little bit by exaggerating,” said Pierson.
Pierson said he tried to observe every detail of Don Blankenship’s face and body language to see if he could detect what he was feeling.
“When you look at Don Blankenship, when you look at a photograph of him, one thing people notice is a lack of emotion,” Pierson said. “People often said that his face was stoic and that ‘how do you capture any emotion from Don Blankenship?’ But I think when you’re seeing him in person in the courtroom. There’s a lot there actually, especially in the eyes. There’s a lot behind those eyes.”
Credit Jeff Pierson
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Sketch of Don Blankenship from the first day of the trial
On the very first day of the trial, Pierson drew a sketch of Blankenship with dark circles under his eyes.
“His posture was very relaxed. He had his arm up on an empty chair in the courtroom. I just felt he was very relaxed, as if he didn’t care. But then I started studying his face. You can tell a lot through the eyes. And in this particular image, I was trying to capture a little bit of his humanities in this process and this situation he had found himself in. I saw a lot of sadness, but I also saw a lot of contempt for the process and for what was happening around him.”
At the end of this long process, Pierson said there’s one other sketch that stands out to him. It’s the drawing of the family members who had lost loved ones in the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster.
“And my job was to capture their observance of the trial. And I decided to draw the back of Gary [Quarles’] head, looking at Don [Blankenship]. He would often glance over at Blankenship, and that’s what I decided to capture with Gary,” Pierson said. “Although we don’t see his face, I think there was a lot of emotion that was caught just by him looking at Mr. Blankenship during that trial. That was the most emotional sketch. In itself it was an emotional piece.
“As the trial went on, as we knew that the verdict was coming soon, those family members became more quiet. They were a little more reserved in their conversations. It was great to get to know them. But truly we became family. And I’d never met these people before, and I may never see them again. But that last day after that verdict, when I said goodbye to them it was tough. Because I know the impact that this has had on them, obviously, and to get this verdict, I think some of them were unhappy, some of them spoke out in the media, we’ve heard what they had to say. Some of them they didn’t get the closure they expected. There was one family member in particular that when he was emotional, it was hard not to be emotional about it. It was hard not to feel his pain and his suffering and his grief. And that was Gary.”
This April, Pierson plans to be back at the Federal Courthouse, with his sketchpad and pencils, for the sentencing of Don Blankenship.
A longer version of this interview will air on this weekend’s episode of Inside Appalachia.
