Ex-CEO in Upper Big Branch mine disaster eyes Senate bid

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Ex-CEO in Upper Big Branch mine disaster eyes Senate bid

The Associated Press | Thursday, January 18, 2018 12:00 p.m.

Massey Energy Co.'s Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. Wednesday, April 7, 2010. (Andrew Russell | Tribune-Review)

LOGAN, W.Va. — A former coal company CEO who went to prison for charges related to the deadliest U.S. mine disaster in four decades is kicking off his U.S. Senate campaign with a town hall meeting for voters.

Ex-Massey Energy boss Don Blankenship is scheduled to attend the meeting Thursday night in Logan.

Blankenship will face U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in the May 8 GOP primary. Democrat Joe Manchin is seeking re-election.

The 67-year-old Blankenship was released from a federal prison in California last year after serving a one-year term.

Blankenship was sentenced in 2016 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.

Details

Other defendants

Three Massey Energy Co. and Upper Big Branch mine officials were convicted of or admitted to crimes in the wake of the explosion that killed 29 miners in 2010:

• David Hughart, 55, former president of Massey subsidiary White Buck Coal Co., pleaded guilty in February 2013 to conspiring to thwart surprise safety inspections. He did not name Blankenship by name but said the conspiracy was ordered by "the chief executive officer." He was sentenced to 31⁄2years in prison and three years of probation.

• Hughie Elbert Stover, 63, former security chief for Upper Big Branch, was convicted in October 2011 by a federal jury in Beckley of lying to investigators and ordering a subordinate to destroy documents. He was sentenced to three years in prison and two years of probation and fined $20,000.

• Gary May, 46, former superintendent of Upper Big Branch, pleaded guilty in March 2012 to defrauding the government by disabling a methane gas monitor, falsifying records and other actions. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison and three years of probation and fined $20,000.