An official with an eastern Kentucky coal mining company has pleaded guilty to federal charges that he put miners at risk.Coal mine foremen are required to note hazardous conditions in inspection reports, and then correct them. Manalapan Mining Company shift foreman Bryant Massingale acknowledged that he didn’t do this in federal court on Thursday.Massingale worked at the company's P-1 mine in Harlan County. A grand jury charged the company and three officials with exposing miners to the risk of injury or death by violating safety rules in June 2011.Massingale is the only one who is pleading guilty: the company and two other officials have pleaded not guilty.A few weeks before the alleged acts listed in the indictment, 49-year-old David Partin of Pineville died when a section of the mine wall fell on him.
