Tag: Upper Big Branch

Supreme Court Won't Take Up Case of Ex-Massey Energy CEO

The Supreme Court is leaving in place the conviction of ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship for misdemeanor conspiracy to violate federal safety standards at a West Virginia mine where 29 miners died in 2010.

The court declined Tuesday to take up Blankenship’s case. Blankenship, who recently finished a one-year prison term, had asked the court to review his conviction, which a federal appeals court upheld in January.

Blankenship had said he’s “more than 100 percent innocent” and the case was colored by emotion and publicity. He says natural gas caused the explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine, and the trial judge erred in instructing the jury and limiting cross-examination.

Four investigations found worn and broken cutting equipment created a spark that ignited accumulations of coal dust and methane gas.

Don Blankenship Makes Appeal to U.S. Supreme Court

Attorneys for former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship have made a last pitch to the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out his conviction connected to a 2010 West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 miners.

Attorneys for Don Blankenship say in the appeal that the high court should hear it so that other corporate executives aren’t subject to similar prosecutions for workplace safety violations.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that the lawyers want the court to reverse Blankenship’s 2016 conspiracy conviction. Blankenship was not charged in causing the disaster, but the charge focused on safety violations at the Upper Big Branch mine. His appeal is considered a longshot.

Blankenship was sentenced to one year in prison and a $250,000 fine, both the maximum allowable for a criminal mine safety violation.

Blankenship to Be Released from Federal Prison

Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship is finishing up a one-year federal prison sentence arising from the deadliest U.S. mine explosion in four decades.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website, Blankenship was set to be released Wednesday from a halfway house in Phoenix, Arizona. He must serve one year of supervised release.

“I’m glad he had time to reflect on the pain he caused,” former U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin, whose office in Charleston prosecuted the case, said in a text message to The Associated Press ahead of Blankenship’s release. “I hope he used it wisely and will come out of prison ready to make amends.”

It wasn’t immediately clear where Blankenship will serve his supervised release. After his indictment, federal prosecutors indicated Blankenship owned homes in several states, and Blankenship said he lived in Las Vegas. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Charleston referred questions to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

A bureau spokesman and Blankenship’s attorney, William Taylor, didn’t return requests for comment.

Blankenship was sentenced last year for a misdemeanor conviction of conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards at Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine in southern West Virginia, where 29 workers died in a 2010 explosion. He was acquitted of felonies that could have stretched his sentence to 30 years.

“He shouldn’t be coming out,” said former Upper Big Branch miner Tommy Davis, who lost a son, brother and a nephew in the explosion. “He didn’t get what he deserved.”

Four investigations found worn and broken cutting equipment created a spark that ignited accumulations of coal dust and methane gas at Upper Big Branch. Broken and clogged water sprayers then allowed what should have been a minor flare-up to become an inferno.

Blankenship has said natural gas, and not methane gas and excess coal dust, was at the root of the explosion. Authorities dismissed that argument.

Massey was later bought by Alpha Natural Resources of Bristol, Virginia. Alpha agreed in 2011 to pay $210 million to compensate the grieving families, bankroll cutting-edge safety improvements and pay for years of violations by Massey Energy. Alpha announced in 2012 that the mine would be permanently sealed.

Blankenship, 67, served most of his sentence at Correctional Institute Taft near Bakersfield, California. While there, he wrote a 67-page blog before his appeal was heard in which he called himself an “American political prisoner.”

He wrote that politicians imprisoned him for self-serving reasons and claimed misconduct by prosecutors, judges, law clerks, the FBI, former President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

During the trial, prosecutors called Blankenship a bullish micromanager who meddled in the smallest details of Upper Big Branch. They said Massey’s safety programs were just a facade — never backed by more money to hire additional miners or take more time on safety tasks.

Blankenship said his indictment was the federal government’s “‘poster child’ case of what is wrong with the American judicial system.”

Davis is concerned that Blankenship will work again in the coal industry, either by getting hired by a company or starting one himself.

“He’ll be doing the same thing he’s done before. Just give it a little bit of time,” Davis said. “He’ll be back to his same old ways. He ain’t going to change. That man ain’t out for nothing but money. He has disregarded safety. He don’t care — he just wants that money.”

Former Massey Energy CEO Moved to Halfway House

Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship has been moved to a halfway house as he nears the completion of his federal prison sentence.The Charleston…

Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship has been moved to a halfway house as he nears the completion of his federal prison sentence.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that Blankenship has been placed in a halfway house in Phoenix, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website.

Blankenship, who turned 67 on March 14, was previously doing his time at Correctional Institute Taft near Bakersfield, California.

It was not immediately clear when Blankenship was moved.

He is serving a one-year sentence after he was convicted of conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards at Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine, where 29 workers died in a 2010 explosion.

Blankenship is scheduled to be released from custody on May 10. He must also serve one year of supervised release.

Deadly Floods Voted Top News Story of 2016 in West Virginia

A National Weather Service meteorologist called it a “1-in-1,000-year” storm. By the time it was over, 23 West Virginians were dead.

Flooding that ravaged the state in late June was voted the No. 1 news story in 2016 in West Virginia by Associated Press member newspapers and broadcasters.

The sentencing of former Massey CEO Don Blankenship and his subsequent appeal was voted second, and the state’s substance abuse epidemic was third.

The floods destroyed or damaged thousands of homes, businesses, roads and bridges; prompted a massive response from volunteers and organizations; and dominated headlines for months. President Barack Obama issued a disaster declaration for a dozen counties.

“The June 2016 floods were a natural disaster of the magnitude that many West Virginians had never witnessed before,” said Lauren McGill, metro editor at The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington. “The number of deaths and the extent of the destruction caused by the flooding shocked the entire state, and will not be soon forgotten.”

Leslie Rubin, a reporter at WCHS-TV in Charleston, said the flooding “was something unlike anything I had ever seen. There were countless stories of hope and help that showed what it really means to be a West Virginian. On the other end of that, it is still painful to see the effects of the flood that will forever leave a mark on our state.”

West Virginia’s ongoing struggles with substance abuse also received votes.

But the story line finished just shy of overtaking Blankenship, who is serving a one-year sentence after being convicted of misdemeanor conspiracy for what prosecutors called a series of willful safety violations before the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 men. Before his appeal was heard in October, Blankenship released a manifesto from prison declaring himself a political prisoner.

Among the substance abuse stories this year included the heroin overdoses of more than two dozen people in a five-hour span in Huntington in August. Two people died. Elected leaders, communities, and health- and faith-based groups are seeking ways to end the scourge of drug addiction.

“The substance abuse issue is one that impacts every state resident, in every county and from every demographic category,” said John McCabe, managing editor of The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register. “It’s ripping families apart, leaving children to be raised by grandparents, or, worse, in the foster care system. This is one of our defining issues at this time, and as a community, we need to tackle it head-on.”

Rounding out West Virginia’s top 10 stories were:

— Greenbrier resort owner Jim Justice, a Democrat, is elected governor over Republican Bill Cole.

— West Virginia voters overwhelmingly choose Republican Donald Trump for president over Hillary Clinton. Trump’s win nationally gives hope to coal communities that have seen economic downturns in recent decades.

— A January blizzard dumps 42 inches of snow in parts of West Virginia.

— Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, daughter of Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, is grilled on Capitol Hill about the sky-high price of lifesaving EpiPens and the profits for her company.

— After months of stalled negotiations on balancing the state budget, lawmakers in mid-June opt to bank on higher taxes on cigarettes, e-cigarettes and other tobacco products to raise about $98 million a year.

— Buoyed by Trump’s popularity, Republicans maintain their control of West Virginia’s Legislature, while the GOP wins four of the six statewide offices.

— Coal companies including Alpha Natural Resources and Blackhawk Mining announce the additional layoffs of hundreds of miners in West Virginia as the industry’s downtown continues.

Appeals Court to Review Ex-Coal CEO Blankenship's Case

Attorneys for former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship are hoping to convince an appeals court their client was wrongly sent to prison.

Blankenship ran the coal company that owned West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine, where a 2010 explosion killed 29 men. He’s currently serving a one-year sentence after being convicted of conspiracy for what prosecutors call a series of willful safety violations at the company.

Blankenship’s attorneys say the conviction was unfair and that Blankenship never willfully violated safety regulations. Prosecutors say Blankenship instructed underlings that safety violations were a cost of doing business.

The 66-year-old Blankenship recently released a manifesto from prison declaring himself a political prisoner.

A three-judge panel at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond is scheduled to hear the case Wednesday.

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