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 Kurt Mix, 52, now a former BP Plc <BP.L> employee, had faced two
counts of obstruction for deleting hundreds of messages he exchanged
with his supervisor and a contractor in the weeks after the spill.
He was part of a team that scrambled to plug the Macondo well and
figure out how much oil was leaking in what became the worst
offshore environmental disaster in U.S. history.
The Macondo well explosion on April 20, 2010, killed 11 workers on
the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and triggered an 87-day oil spill
in which millions of gallons of crude flowed into the Gulf of
Mexico.
During the two-week trial, government lawyers painted Mix as a loyal
member of the drilling team who tried to shield BP from blame by
deleting text and voice messages that may have proven BP lied about
how much oil was escaping into the gulf.
Defense attorneys, who do not deny Mix deleted messages, insisted he
had no ill intent and that the deletions were largely accidental.
Mix, of Katy, Texas, did not take the stand in his own defense. He
faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
"Today a jury in New Orleans found that Kurt Mix purposefully
obstructed the efforts of law enforcement during the investigation
of the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history," said Acting
Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department's
Criminal Division.
The defense said it would appeal the decision.
"Mix was rightly acquitted of one of the two counts he faced — and
we will continue to fight until we receive the full vindication that
Kurt deserves," his defense team said after the verdict. "Rest
assured we will use every avenue to appeal this case until Kurt is
fully exonerated."
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Prosecutor Leo Tsao had told the jurors that Mix had been warned
repeatedly not to delete any information from his company iPhone and
had notified him that he might be subpoenaed before a grand jury
investigating BP's response to the spill.
By ignoring those warnings, Mix displayed "corrupt intent" Tsao
said.
"He deleted the messages even though he had been told ... that if he
did so, he could be criminally prosecuted," the prosecutor told the
jury.
Mix's lawyer, Michael McGovern, countered that his client was an
innocent man who "told the truth to U.S. government scientists all
throughout the response effort."
McGovern said it was unreasonable to believe that Mix "a drilling
engineer with no law enforcement training whatsoever was
specifically thinking about the possibility of a grand jury when he
deleted messages from his iPhone."
Mix is one of four current or former BP employees charged with
crimes connected with the well incident. His is the first case to be
tried.
BP also faces ongoing civil litigation.
(Reporting by Kathy Finn; editing by Anna Driver, Leslie Gevirtz and
G Crosse)
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