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March 1st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda CHARLESTON, West Virginia (Reuters)- – The former security chief at a coal mine where 29 miners died in 2010 was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison for lying to federal agents and obstructing an investigation into the worst accident in the U.S. mining industry in four decades.
Hughie Elbert Stover, of Clear Fork, West Virginia, who was convicted last October, had faced a maximum possible sentence of 25 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Irene Berger in Beckley, West Virginia.
He was convicted of giving false statements to FBI and Mine Safety and Health Administration investigators and with obstructing the federal investigation into the cause of the Upper Big Branch disaster.
An explosion at the mine, owned by the now-defunct Massey Energy, killed 29 miners in April 2010.
“Today’s sentence sends a clear message that when a person obstructs an investigation – especially an investigation as critical as UBB – there will be consequences,” U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said in a statement.
Prosecutors said Stover had lied when he told FBI and mine safety investigators that security guards had not routinely warned mine personnel when inspectors were on their way to the mine.
But investigators discovered that Stover himself warned mine personnel when mine safety inspectors were on their way. Stover also instructed another person to destroy thousands of Massey Energy documents related to the UBB mine, prosecutors said.
Last week, the former superintendent of the mine was charged with felony conspiracy, accused of tipping off employees to safety inspections and concealing dangerous violations.
The former superintendent, Gary May, is the highest-ranking Massey official to face criminal charges, which were laid out against him and “others known and unknown” in a criminal information filing, typically used when someone is expected to enter into a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Massey has since been bought by Alpha Natural Resources.
Three reports, including a preliminary report by the mine safety administration and a report released by the United Mine Workers of America, blame Massey for the disaster by allowing unsafe conditions in the mine.
(Editing By Ellen Wulfhorst and Cynthia Johnston)
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