This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 22, 2012
An earlier version of this article stated incorrectly the action federal prosecutors had taken against Gary May. Mr. May has been charged, not indicted.
Thứ Năm, 23 tháng 2, 2012
Mine Superintendent Charged in 2010 Disaster
Mr. May is the third mine supervisor to be charged in the disaster, the worst mining accident in the United States in 40 years. Last year charges were brought against two others — the mine’s security chief and a foreman who had not been at the mine on the day of the explosion. But Mr. May, one of the mine’s two superintendents, is the most senior, and industry observers say the charges against him are an indication that prosecutors are getting closer to the executives who ran the company, Massey Energy, which has since been bought by Alpha Natural Resources. “They’re moving up in the food chain,” said Tony Oppegard, a Kentucky lawyer who defends miners. “This will cause some sleepless nights for people high up in the corporate ladder.” The way the charges were filed — directly to the court by prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office, instead of by a grand jury indictment — indicates that Mr. May is cooperating with prosecutors, a strategy that observers say could eventually lead prosecutors to top executives, including Don L. Blankenship, the former head of Massey, who state investigations concluded had enforced a culture of cutting corners and ignoring risks for the sake of profit. The charges, filed in federal court in West Virginia, include conspiracy to defraud the United States by impeding a federal agency, a felony that is punishable by up to five years in prison. The charging document paints a picture of deception with Mr. May at its center, directing workers to falsify record books and speaking to them in code as a way of warning that inspectors were coming. According to a person close to the investigation, those phrases included “bringing in a load of blocks,” and “it’s raining outside” or “there’s a hailstorm outside.” Another warning phrase was “I had a hamburger (or cheeseburger) for dinner last night,” the person said. The conspiracy charges against Mr. May were an unusual strategy, lawyers said. Few violations qualify as federal felonies under existing law, and law enforcement has been hampered by weak misdemeanor penalties. A conspiracy charge allows prosecutors to be more flexible in their strategy, and if it is successful, could give them a tool to reach senior mine officials who have traditionally been insulated from criminal charges because they are rarely involved in actual coal mining. Mr. May began working at the Upper Big Branch mine, as it was known, in February 2008 as a foreman, according to the charging document. He was promoted to superintendent in 2009 and held that position through April 5, 2010, when the explosion happened. In a statement e-mailed to reporters, Alpha said that Mr. May became an employee of an Alpha subsidiary after that company acquired Massey Energy last year. It said he had been placed on administrative leave. At the heart of the charges is an accusation that Mr. May knowingly misled federal inspectors from the Mine Safety and Health Administration when they made regular checks to ensure that the mine was safe, signaling to workers on site, sometimes using code phrases, that inspectors were about to arrive. That allowed them to conceal violations for which they would have otherwise been penalized. Charges also include making changes in the ventilation system in the mine just before federal inspectors arrived to make it appear that the parts of the mine being examined by inspectors had better air than they actually did. Another action that contributed to the conspiracy, the charging documents say, was the circumvention of a methane monitor, which is attached to a continuous mining machine and shuts it down if methane levels rise. In February 2010, one such monitor broke, the document alleges, and prosecutors accuse Mr. May of ordering the rewiring of that monitor to defeat the legally required shutoff mechanism, allowing the machine to be operated for several hours without a functioning methane monitor. “Mine safety and health laws were routinely violated,” the charging document stated, “in part because of a belief that following those laws would decrease coal production.”
