Ronald Dale Koontz, 69, of Hendersonville, Tennessee; Demitrios George Macropoulos, 38, of Buckeye, Arizona; Randy L. Nowland, 67, of Waltonville, Illinois; and Cory Taylor Humphrey, 37, of Prospect, Kentucky, have been charged with crimes related to an underground fire at 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 by concealing the fire and other mine hazards, interfering with the investigation, and impeding the administration of safety-related orders.
The indictment alleges that the defendants kept miners underground and continued mining coal for all or portions of three shifts while efforts to fight the fire were unsuccessful. They 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. Nowland and Humphrey are also charged with falsifying records required to document mine hazards, including signing examination records that falsely certified no hazardous conditions existed.
According to the indictment, Koontz was the general manager of a company providing oversight and services to the corporate operator of the mine. Macropoulos was the mine superintendent, while Nowland and Humphrey were shift mine managers. On or about Aug. 13, 2021, a fire began while mine personnel used cutting torches to cut collapsed steel beams. The indictment alleges that, after the fire could not be extinguished within 10 minutes, the defendants and former mine manager Brandon Timothy Parsons agreed not to evacuate miners or notify MSHA and instead directed coal mining to continue during ad hoc firefighting efforts through the morning of Aug. 14.
The indictment further alleges that Parsons later evacuated hourly employees under the false pretense that a belt carrying coal to the surface was broken, while members of the conspiracy went underground to continue fighting the fire. After MSHA received an anonymous tip, inspectors confirmed the fire and the agency ordered the mine evacuated. Koontz and Macropoulos are charged with entering the mine in violation of that order. The indictment also alleges that conspirators re-entered the mine on two occasions, manipulated underground conditions to fool gas detectors, and sought to dispose of a portable gas detector collected during the investigation.
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 for the Southern District of Illinois.
Koontz is additionally charged with directing another supervisor to delete a record reflecting a telephone call he made. Parsons pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud MSHA on Aug. 28, 2025, in a related criminal proceeding filed in August 2025. If convicted, the defendants each face possible incarceration; a federal district court judge would determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General and FBI investigated the case. An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.