Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 27, 1994 TAG: 9408290032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER NOTE: above
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Southmountain Coal Co. and two of its supervisors pleaded guilty Friday in Roanoke to federal mine safety violations that led to a 1992 coal mine explosion that killed eight men and injured another.
The Wise County coal company faces a $3.6 million fine after pleading guilty to five felony counts and eight misdemeanor charges. In return for the guilty plea, the U.S. attorney's office dismissed five counts against the company.
The company pleaded guilty to a series of federal mine violations that led to a buildup of methane gas in the mine near Norton. Federal investigators say the gas was ignited by a lighter carried into the mine by one of the blast's victims.
"We're extremely happy and we basically got everything we wanted," Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Bondurant said after the hearing. Those violations "added up to why there was an explosion and why eight people were killed."
Bondurant said the federal investigation isn't over and more charges might be filed.
Robert W. Kyle, a vice president for Southmountain who was acting on behalf of the company, entered the guilty plea to misdemeanor charges that the company failed to properly inspect the mine's ventilation system and to felony charges that it falsified record books to cover the violations.
The company, which no longer has any active mining operations, also admitted that its mine foremen did not conduct required weekly searches of employees for smoking materials.
Bondurant stressed that the ventilation system violations were the primary cause of the explosion.
If the company had come even close to following the federal ventilation guidelines, "you could have had a bonfire down there and it wouldn't have exploded," he said.
Bondurant said he will ask Judge Samuel Wilson to impose the maximum fine against Southmountain, but expects the company to argue it doesn't have the money to pay that amount.
Attorneys for Southmountain would not comment.
Freddie Carl Deatherage, 43, of Jenkins, Ky., and Kenneth Ray Brooks, 58, of Clintwood also pleaded guilty to federal mine violations Friday.
Deatherage was the superintendent and Brooks the evening shift foreman at Southmountain's No. 3 mine, which exploded near daybreak Dec. 7, 1992.
Deatherage pleaded guilty to twice signing a record book indicating that he had examined the mine's ventilation system when he had not done so.
He also admitted that he had failed to develop a safety program to ensure that workers weren't smoking in the mine.
He faces 15 years in prison and a $750,000 fine for the three counts against him.
Brooks faces 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine after pleading guilty to charges that he did not properly search miners for smoking materials. Brooks even smoked in the mine, Bondurant said.
Brooks and Deatherage will be sentenced Dec. 6, a day before the second anniversary of the explosion.
Earlier this month, Paul Douglas Ramey, Southmountain's day shift supervisor, pleaded guilty to authorizing smoking in the mine and conducting sham searches for smoking materials.
David Lee Goode, another mine foreman, is scheduled for trial next month on charges that he authorized smoking in the mine.
Jack Davis of Coeburn, the operator of the mine, and W. Ridley Elkins of Clintwood, the consultant that federal investigators say ran the mine, have not been indicted.
But the investigation isn't over.
Shortly after the hearing Friday, defense attorney Bill Bradshaw reminded Brooks that he had been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in September.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***