Re-trial date to be set next week for ex-BP engineer
Published 10:30 am Friday, July 24, 2015
- FILE - This Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010 file photo shows vessels assisting in the drilling of the Deepwater Horizon relief well on the Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Louisiana at sunset. The BP leak, the worst-ever in offshore U.S. waters, occurred at a well that the company was in the process of temporarily closing. The accident killed 11 workers and spilled up to 172 million gallons of oil. Federal officials defend their well safety efforts since then, and there have more permanent closures. There were 25,928 permanently sealed wells in mid-May 2015, up 10 percent from 23,468 at the end of the BP spill, according to the AP analysis of federal data. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A former BP engineer who won a new trial in a criminal case arising from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill is expected to learn the date of that trial next week.
Federal prosecutors accused Kurt Mix of deleting text messages about the amount of oil flowing from BP’s Macondo well after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Mix was acquitted on one criminal count in 2013. But he was convicted on an obstruction of justice charge.
The judge later threw that conviction out because of jury misconduct. A federal appeals court recently agreed.
The New Orleans-based federal judge is expected to set a new trial date Wednesday.
Mix has pleaded not guilty. His defense lawyers say he shared information about the flow rate throughout the government investigation.
