Chief Of Maintenance Employee At Ken American Resources Paradise #9 Mine Located In Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, Sentenced For Violation Of The Mine Safety And Health Act

OWENSBORO, Ky. –  The Chief of Maintenance at Ken American Resources Paradise #9 Mine located in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, was recently sentenced in United Sates District Court by Chief Judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr., to two years of supervised probation and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine for felony violations of the Mine Safety and Health Act, announced United States Attorney Russell M. Coleman.

“Falsifying safety records puts our miners at risk and will be federally prosecuted” stated U.S. Attorney Coleman. “Safety inspections of belt drives in coal mines are important because if they don’t run smoothly, fires or other catastrophes can occur in an environment with zero margin of error.  We will continue to work with the Mine Safety and Health Administration to investigate those who undermine the safety of our Commonwealth’s critically important mines.”

Daniel L. Couch, Jr. entered a guilty plea on July 13, 2017, and was sentenced on November 17, 2017.

According to the indictment, Couch, whose job it was to make a weekly inspection of electric equipment, specifically of the belt drive of coal seal 11 at Paradise #9 Mine, did not in fact make the required fire suppression checks for the week of May 1 through 7, in 2016.

On about May 17, 2016, an Inspector from the United States Department of Labor, Mine Safety & Health Administration, inspected the record book for fire suppression checks conducted on the belt drives for coal seam 11, which contains seven separate belt drives at seven different locations, and found that no fire suppression checks had occurred for the week of May 1 through 7, 2016.

On or about May 19, 2016, the Inspector returned to Paradise #9 mine and re-examined the record book for inspections for the belt drive for coal seam 11, at which time the book revealed that the belt drives had been examined on May 7, 2016 by “D. Couch,” and that no hazards had been observed.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Randy Ream and was investigated by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) U.S. Department of Labor.