A former Signal Peak mine executive indicted on cocaine charges is now accused of twice covering up worker injuries that sent employees to the hospital.
When an employee hurt his fingers loading mining materials on Jan. 6, 2018, he got a call from Dale Lee Musgrave while being transported to the hospital telling him to lie and tell doctors his injury didn’t happen on the job, according to new charges filed in U.S. District Court in Billings on Friday.
The injury eventually required partial amputation, prosecutors say.
Musgrave was vice president of underground operations at the mine.
A second mine worker was partially buried by falling dirt and debris from an excavated mine wall. That injury took place on Sept. 16, 2019, and required surgery on the man's leg, the indictment states.
Several days later, prosecutors say other mine employees learned the accident had been concealed and reported it to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Musgrave is accused of failing to notify authorities about the injuries or file the required reports with the federal agency.
He’s now set to be arraigned on the new charges in September. He faces one count each of false statement, conspiracy and false statements in mine records. Attorney Lisa Bazant did not respond to a request for comment left Wednesday afternoon.
Stephen Phillip Casher is among the web of people tied to former coal executive Larry Price Jr. who were charged with crimes after Price — facing a reckoning over tens of millions of dollars he owed — staged his own abduction in 2018.
