Published: April 03, 2008 11:18 pm         

Massey CEO accosted TV producer, ABC News claims

Massey Energy Co.’s chief executive threatened to shoot an ABC News producer and tore his shirt collar when the newsman made an unannounced attempt to interview him in a parking lot at one of the coal company’s offices, a network spokesman said Thursday.

But CEO Don Blankenship said the scuffle happened after the producer put a camera too close to his face.

ABC is working on a story about Blankenship’s relationship with state Supreme Court Chief Justice Elliott “Spike” Maynard. The two were photographed vacationing in Monaco in July 2006 while Massey had cases pending before the court.

ABC identified the producer as Asa Eslocker on its Web site Thursday. The network said it plans to air footage Monday that shows Blankenship telling Eslocker, “If you’re going to start taking pictures of me, you’re liable to get shot,” ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said.

Blankenship then moved quickly toward Eslocker, grabbed his camera and snapped off a microphone before putting his hands to the man’s throat and tearing his shirt collar, Schneider said.

Blankenship offered a different version of events, saying Eslocker followed his Cadillac into the parking lot, got out, trained a camera on him and put it too close to his face. “I reached up and moved the camera aside a little bit and he took great offense,” he said.

Blankenship said Eslocker grabbed his arm and he grabbed the producer’s chest to keep his balance. Blankenship said he moved Eslocker toward his car and repeatedly asked him to leave.

He said he doesn’t remember saying Eslocker might be shot, though he doesn’t dispute that comment.

“I probably did,” Blankenship said. “I didn’t say I would bother him.”

Blankenship said he would have reacted differently had he known Eslocker was a newsman.

“I’ve been accosted by environmentalists and just people in general,” he said. “It’s been a normal thing for 20 years.”

Blankenship has kept a memento in his office of a long-ago labor dispute — a television with a bullet hole.

Schneider said the producer attempted the parking lot interview after unsuccessful attempts to arrange a face-to-face meeting. Though Massey is based in Richmond, Va., Blankenship maintains his primary office at the headquarters of a subsidiary in eastern Kentucky.

He said ABC also interviewed Maynard and expects to run the story next week.

Neither side plans to press charges.

Based in Richmond, Va., Massey is the nation’s fourth-largest coal producer by revenue. It operates 19 mining complexes in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. Its stock rose rose $2.13, or 5.6 percent, to $39.88 Thursday.