Coal dust: Mine managers in federal fraud trial in Kentucky
ABC News
A criminal fraud trial in Kentucky aims to determine whether four officials of the now-bankrupt Armstrong Coal company skirted federal rules meant to reduce deadly coal dust in underground mines
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Four former coal mine officials are being tried on criminal fraud charges in Kentucky for allegedly skirting federal rules meant to reduce deadly dust in underground mines.
The men worked as managers or supervisors for now-bankrupt Armstrong Coal. Federal prosecutors said they ordered workers at two Kentucky mines to rig dust-monitoring equipment to pass air quality tests.
Attorneys for the former coal company officials said they are innocent of the charges. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Louisville.
“It’s a tragedy a man who has spent his life in the mines is forced to defend himself now from this government overreach,” attorney Marc S. Murphy said of his client, Charley Barber, a former superintendent at Armstrong's Parkway mine.
