According to the Associated Press, the 64-year-old ex-executive, who has plead guilty on all counts – he is facing up to 31 years in prison for conspiracy to violate mandatory federal mine safety and health standards, conspiracy to impede federal mine safety officials, making false statements to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and securities fraud – will now go before a judge on October 1.
The decision to move was made by U.S. District Judge Irene Berger; Berger has also moved the trial from Beckley to Charleston despite reported requests by the defense to move it from West Virginia entirely.
The judge had also reportedly been asked by prosecutors and defense attorneys to move the trial date back, though she had already denied an initial request to delay until January 2016, the AP said.
In court filings, she noted she was “making an effort to err, if at all, on the side of caution,” and decided that the push was for “good cause.”
In January, a hearing in the case was given a delay until April 20. That date, too, was rescheduled.
The UBB blast in April 2010 killed 29 miners.
