Don Blankenship smiles as he leaves the federal courthouse after the verdict in his trial in Charleston, W.Va., Thursday Dec. 3, 2015.
Advertisement
Blankenship, a titan of the nation’s coal industry whose approach to business was scrutinized and scorned after 29 workers were killed at the Upper Big Branch mine in 2010, was convicted Thursday of a federal charge of conspiring to violate mine safety that stemmed from the accident, the deadliest in us mining in decades.
Blankenship is facing a maximum fine of $250,000 and a sentence of one year in prison on the misdemeanor conspiracy charge. Prosecutors initially sought a 30-year prison term. Prosecutors alleged that the false statements to the SEC and investors were aimed at stemming the erosion of Massey’s stock value-with which Blankenship’s personal wealth was closely bound up with-amidst the barrage of damning media accounts regarding the company’s operations in the days following the disaster.
“There have long been bad choices in the coal mining business, but the fall guys have always been the lower echelon employees”, Jim Lees, a former prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer, based in Charleston, W.V., told The Christian Science Monitor following Mr. Blankenship’s indictment. In late 2012, former Massey executive David Hughart reached a deal with federal prosecutors, pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to violate federal mine health and safety laws and one felony count of conspiracy to defraud MSHA. Blankenship said he was singled out for his conservative Republican political activism, and according to his attorneys, he plans to appeal.
Was released in November 2014 after spending 36 months in prison after being convicted by a jury in October 2011 of two felonies, lying to Upper Big Branch investigators and trying to destroy evidence.
The jury of eight women and four men was not asked to decide directly whether Blankenship was guilty or not guilty in the deaths of the 29 miners at Upper Big Branch in 2010. “Though you’re not convicted on all counts, you are convicted”, Judy Jones Petersen, whose brother Dean Jones was killed, was quoted as saying.
Some friends and family of the victims said they felt a sense of relief over the decision. You know, there was a quality of make-it-up-as-you-go-along in this case. “This is a landmark day for the safety of coal miners”.
His conviction is now being viewed as the linchpin of an intensive investigation into Blankenship’s company, Massey Energy.
The misdemeanor count could mean up to one year of jail time for the former coal executive. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez stressed in a statement that the conviction sends a message: “No mine operator is above the law”. The government insisted that Blankenship and Massey had embarked on little more than a safety charade.
Sentencing is reportedly expected to take place early next year.
Advertisement
Despite Blankenship’s conviction, he said, “I don’t ever expect him to do any time over it. I don’t think he ever will”. And he saw himself as a heroic figure who brought jobs to the depressed enclaves of his native West Virginia.
