Former UBB Security Chief Appealing Conviction

{Beckley, West Virginia}...An attorney for Hughie Elbert Stover, the former security chief found guilty of lying to investigators about the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine, says he's taking the case to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. A filing in U.S. District Court in Beckley says Judge Irene Berger wrongly denied a request for certain instructions to the jury, as well as Stover's request for a new trial. That motion also alleged prosecutorial misconduct. Stover was convicted in October of ordering security-related documents be destroyed following the disaster. He was sentenced to three years in prison on February 29th. It's one of the stiffest punishments ever issued in a mine safety case.