Four managers and supervisors of a Franklin County mine have been indicted for failing to evacuate miners during an underground fire, conspiracy to obstruct investigators, and falsifying records
69-year-old Ronald Dale Koontz of Hendersonville, Tennessee, 38-year-old Demitrios George Macropoulos of Buckeye, Arizona, 67-year-old Randy L. Nowland of Waltonville, Illinois, and 37-year-old Cory Taylor Humphrey of Prospect, Kentucky, have been charged with multiple crimes related to an underground fire that occurred in the MC#1 Mine in Franklin County, Illinois, in August 2021.
The indictment returned Tuesday charges all four with conspiring to defraud the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) by concealing the fire and other hazards at the mine and taking steps to interfere with the investigation of the fire and administration of safety-related orders in the aftermath of the fire. The Indictment charges the defendants with keeping miners underground and continuing to mine coal for all or portions of three shifts while unsuccessfully fighting a fire. The defendants are charged with failing to evacuate the mine and notify MSHA as required by mandatory safety standards under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act (the Mine Act). Nowland and Humphrey are also charged under the Mine Act with falsification of records required to document mine hazards. Koontz and Macropoulos are charged with obstruction of an MSHA proceeding for entering the mine in violation of an MSHA safety order withdrawing miners from the mine. Koontz is further charged with obstruction for directing another supervisor to delete a record reflecting a telephone call he made.
A fifth conspirator and former mine manager, Brandon Timothy Parsons, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud MSHA on Aug. 28, 2025 in a related criminal proceeding filed in August 2025.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Energy and Natural Resources Division says as Congress has long recognized, a strong, productive coal industry depends on miners who feel safe and trust that their leaders are not putting them at unnecessary risk.
“When people in positions of authority conceal deadly conditions and then cover up their actions, they put lives at risk and prevent federal authorities from doing the job the law requires them to do. That kind of obstruction is unacceptable,” said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft. “These charges hold accountable those who chose to protect the company’s financial interests over the safety of the people they are obligated to protect.”
If convicted, the defendants each face possible incarceration. If found guilty, a federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
