Attorney Sanders says three criminal defendants facing hard time for criminal MSHA violations in Harlan, Kentucky.

A surprise MSHA inspection at Stillhouse Mining Mine No. 1 in Cumberland on Dec. 3, 2006 resulted in the indictment of three men. Ira Sergent, Johnny Osborne and Reggie Raleigh worked at the Stillhouse Mining No. 1 Mine in Harlan County. The safety violations came in December 2006, according to a federal indictment filed in London on September 24, 2008.
Each miner is charged with allowing the mine's main fan to be shut off for about six hours while work continued. The second count charges each miner with making a ventilation change without cutting the power and moving workers out of the mine. Each defendant faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

When a mine’s ventilation fans are turned off, methane gas can build up in the underground mines and explode. The odorless, colorless gas is also toxic to mines. Methane gas is naturally present in coal beds. Methane seeping from coal beds has no odor to warn miners of its presence or its concentration in the mine work area.

Call it willful, wanton and patently outrageous, but shutting off ventilation fans for an underground mine is a callous disregard of the safety of miners working underground. To make changes to the ventilation system without turning off the electricity and moving the miners up and out of mine make all of this far worse, as electricity could provide an ignition source for methane gas. The methane could potentially explode under these circumstances and kill the brave men and women working down in the mine. Such conduct, if proven in court, must be dealt with in a serious and swift manner, i.e., hard time.

Criminal cases for violations of MSHA are referred by the Department of Labor to the Criminal Division, or, in some cases, directly to the United States Attorneys. If the Criminal Division determines that a case referred to it warrants prosecution, the case will be referred to the appropriate United States Attorney.