A federal judge has slapped the son of Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice with a contempt of court citation for repeatedly failing to respond to a Clean Water Act lawsuit against a family-owned coal products firm.
Chief U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor of the Northern District of Alabama issued the civil contempt order against James “Jay” Justice III and Bluestone Coke on Thursday, a day after he was a no-show at a hearing in Birmingham, Alabama.
In the order, Proctor said that Justice and Bluestone had also failed to comply with earlier orders in the suit, brought last September by two environmental groups.
Proctor set a Sept. 11 deadline for Bluestone to pay the groups’ costs and fees and respond to their records requests via the legal discovery process. Otherwise, monetary sanctions and a default ruling in favor of the challengers could follow, Proctor wrote.
