By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune
2 May 2012 A week after he was arrested by the FBI, a federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted former BP engineer Kurt Mix on two counts of obstruction of justice in relation to the 2010 Gulf oil spill. Mix is accused of deleting hundreds of text messages from his iPhone that estimated the rate at which oil was spewing from BP’s Macondo well in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The indictment, which is almost identical to an FBI affidavit filed last week, alleges that Mix tampered with his iPhone to keep certain information from a grand jury investigating the spill. “The amount of oil flowing was relevant to various efforts to stop the flow and was also relevant to assessing the damage caused by the flow, including potential civil damages and civil and criminal fines and restitution,” the indictment said. Mix, 50, of Katy, Texas, resigned from BP in January. He had assisted in efforts to stop the flow of oil after the April 20 explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon and killed 11 workers. If convicted, Mix could face up to 20 years in prison for each count. He was released on $100,000 unsecured bond after his arrest last week. Wednesday’s indictment formalizes the charges against him. He will be arraigned before a federal magistrate on Thursday. Under federal rules, a defendant arrested pursuant to a criminal complaint has the right to a preliminary hearing within 21 days, a proceeding at which he may call witnesses. If an indictment is handed down first, no preliminary hearing need be held. Generally, white-collar suspects like Mix are indicted rather than arrested, unless prosecutors decide the defendant is a flight risk. Dane Ciolino, a professor at Loyola Law School, mused that the government might have taken the unusual step of arresting Mix for two reasons: because pictures of Mix in handcuffs would send a message that the government is aggressively prosecuting its case, and because the shock of being arrested could lead Mix in the direction of signing a plea deal. “If he wasn’t a flight risk, it seems like this was just for the cameras and the press,” Ciolino said. “It was all for effect — the effect on public opinion, and the effect on him.” […] The indictment contends Mix was warned repeatedly by BP that he should not withhold or delete evidence. But on two separate occasions, he deleted hundreds of text messages from his iPhone shortly before he was to turn them over to a vendor helping to collect data relevant to the case. O’Donnell’s affidavit said many of the more than 300 deleted messages were later recovered by forensic experts working for the FBI.
Former BP engineer is indicted in Gulf oil spill case
