
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 14, 1995                   TAG: 9507140046
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ABINGDON                                LENGTH: Short

MINE OFFICERS SENTENCED FOR EXPLOSION

A federal judge has sentenced a foreman and a superintendent for their roles in a 1992 explosion that killed eight coal miners.

Paul Ramey of Clintwood, a day shift foreman at Southmountain Coal Co.'s No. 3 mine in Wise County, pleaded guilty last year to charges that he allowed miners to smoke underground and conducted bogus searches for smoking materials.

Freddie C. Deatherage, a superintendent, had pleaded guilty to three felony charges: making false statements, falsifying record books and falsifying record books in relation to conducting false searches for smoking materials.

An investigation into the Dec. 7, 1992, explosion revealed that a cigarette lighter ignited methane that had built up in the mine.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson in Abingdon on Wednesday sentenced Deatherage to two months of community confinement with a work-release program, which requires him to stay in his home unless he is at work. Deatherage also will pay a $3,000 fine and be on probation for a year.

Ramey received a year's probation.

Before he was sentenced, Ramey told Wilson he was ``sorry that it happened.'' Deatherage said, ``I'd just like to say I'm sorry, and if I had it to do over, I'd do things a little different.''

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB