Convicted West Virginia Mine Supervisor Sentenced to 21 Months - East Idaho News
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Convicted West Virginia Mine Supervisor Sentenced to 21 Months

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GETTY N 040411 MemorialForWVaMinersUpperBigBranch?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1358502245312SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Nearly three years after one of the deadliest mining disasters in modern times, another top official from the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia is going to prison.

Former superintendent Gary May was sentenced Thursday to 21 months after he was convicted last year of falsifying records, disabling a methane gas monitor and tipping off workers ahead of inspections at the mine.

Twenty-nine workers were killed by an explosion at the mine in April 2010.  Prosecutors said that the blast was the result of then-owner Massey Energy allowing methane and dust to build up.

Last year, former Upper Big Branch security chief Hughie Elbert Stover got three years in prison for lying to investigators.  He failed to win his case on appeal and is now in jail.

The mine’s new owner, Alpha Natural Resources, is also paying $210 million in damages as the result of the deadly explosion.

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