NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A former BP engineer charged with deleting text messages and voicemails about the company’s response to its massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is set to face a jury, more than three years after the Justice Department launched a criminal probe of the disaster.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in New Orleans for the trial of Kurt Mix, who is charged with two counts of obstruction of justice.
The 52-year-old resident of Katy, Texas, is one of four current or former BP employees charged with crimes related to the nation’s worst offshore oil spill. His case is the first to be tried.
Prosecutors claim Mix deleted text messages to and from a supervisor and a BP contractor to hamper a grand jury’s spill investigation.