NORTH JACKSON — An ex-manager at Extrudex Aluminum who tried to hide from investigators the circumstances of an employee’s death in 2012 was given three months home confinement for his role in the attempted cover-up.

Former plant safety coordinator and human resources director Paul Love, at sentencing Tuesday in federal court in Cleveland, was also fined $1,000 and placed on three years of supervised release when his house arrest expires.

His home confinement will be monitored electronically.

Love, of Lake Milton, pleaded guilty July 19 to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice after initially facing charges that also included obstruction of justice, obstruction of proceedings and making false statements to law enforcement.

Former plant manager Brian K. Carder, of Stow, was sentenced Oct. 15 to five months in prison, fined $20,000 and given three years of supervised release for his part trying to hide details from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Carder also pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice. He had originally faced the same charges as Love minus making false statements to law enforcement charge.

The charges stemmed from an investigation into the 2012 death of John Tomlin Jr. of Niles.

Tomlin, 21, was killed Oct. 30, 2012, during an incident at the plant when two metal racks stacked on top of each other, weighing between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds, tipped over onto him and another employee. The two men were pushing the racks on a roller conveyor system, according to a police report.

OSHA began its investigation Oct. 31, 2012, and learned of multiple emails concerning safety issues with the roller system.

Carder and Love devised a plan to lie to an OSHA investigator, an indictment against the pair states. They persuaded employees, by suggesting their jobs might be in jeopardy, to draft statements recanting previous emails about safety issues, according to the indictment. Also during an interview with OSHA, Love gave false information about safety issues, the indictment states.

Extrudex, which has a parent company in Canada, pleaded guilty in April to a charge of misprision of a felony in connection with a conspiracy to obstruct justice related to the OSHA investigation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cleveland. Misprision is the deliberate concealment of one’s knowledge of a treasonable act or a felony.

When the company was sentenced in August, it was fined $250,000 and placed on three years of probation.

Prosecutors alleged Extrudex, through its employees, concealed felony obstruction of justice offenses from Extrudex management in Canada and didn’t tell law enforcement of those offenses. This took place between April 2016 and Jan. 1, 2018, according to the federal attorney’s office.

rselak@tribtoday.com