Published: Aug. 26, 2024, 7:20 p.m.The son of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and the manager of the Birmingham coke plant owned by his family were held in contempt by a federal judge last week for not cooperating with local environmental groups’ pre-trial requests in the groups’ pollution lawsuit.
The younger Justice and Donald Wiggins, the manager of Bluestone Coke, failed to comply with several court orders to produce responses to Black Warrior Riverkeeper and GASPS’ discovery requests and to set dates to be deposed, according to U.S. District Court Judge R. David Proctor’s contempt order. Proctor gave the defendants until Sept. 11 pay the environmental groups’ “reasonable costs and fees” and respond to the plaintiffs’ discovery and other requests in order to “purge the contempt.”
The environmental groups said they documented 392 times that Bluestone itself reported violations of the Clean Water Act.