Former UBB Superintendent Helping With Investigation

{Beckley, West Virginia}...Boone County resident Gary May, of Bloomingrose, a former superintendent at the Upper Big Branch mine, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Beckley to defrauding the federal government by impeding MSHA in carrying out its inspections at UBB. May admitted to giving advance warning of MSHA inspections by using code phrases to avoid detection, hiding violations when inspections were about ready to happen and falsifying the mine examination book and telling miners to rewire a methane gas detector on a piece of mining equipment. The violations concealed included poor airflow in the mine, piles of loose, combustible coal and scarcities of rock dust, which prevents mine explosions. May faces up to five years in federal prison when sentenced August 9th. U.S. Attorney Goodwin says a federal information was filed against May because he continues to help with the investigation.