Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship reports to prison

Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va.

Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship reported to a California prison Thursday to begin serving a one-year sentence for his conviction related to the deadliest U.S. mine explosion in four decades, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman said.

Spokesman Justin Long said Thursday evening that Blankenship was in custody at a federal facility in Taft, Calif. According to the Bureau of Prisons’ website, the low-security facility is operated by a private corporation.

Thursday was the deadline for Blankenship to report. Earlier in the day, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion by his attorneys requesting that Blankenship remain free while he appeals his conviction.

Blankenship’s attorneys filed an emergency motion with the appeals court Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment. An attorney for Blankenship did not immediately comment on the ruling.

Blankenship was sentenced April 6 to a year in prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine for conspiring to willfully violate mine safety standards at West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch coal mine, which exploded in 2010, killing 29 men.