The operator of an underground coal mine near Jenkins on the Pike and Letcher county line was indicted in federal court Thursday after a Mine Safety and Health Administration investigation.

Alger B. Jent, 57, of Kite in Knott County is accused of violating MSHA safety mandates by installing roof bolts that were too weak, too short and too far apart in the CSA Mining No. 2 mine near Jenkins, according to the indictment. The roof bolts were found by MSHA special investigators from Pikeville in June 2008, according to a news release from the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

If convicted, Jent could be sentenced to a year in prison and fined up to $250,000. No attorney was listed for Jent in federal court files, and his next court date was not determined.

It was unclear whether the MSHA investigation stemmed from an accident or a routine inspection.