Guilty plea in BP Gulf oil spill probe

Engineer accused of deleting text messages

New Orleans — A former BP engineer accused of obstructing an investigation into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill by deleting a string of text messages pleaded guilty Friday to a lesser charge, avoiding prison time and ending a legal ordeal that spanned four years.

Prosecutors declined comment after dropping the obstruction charge that could have landed Kurt Mix in prison for 20 years. Instead, he was sentenced to six months of probation.

Mix’s attorney said the plea agreement resulted from an “unraveling” government case. Mix himself said he felt vindicated and relieved, but he also expressed disillusionment.

“Before this case I knew very little about our justice system and how it worked,” Mix said, reading a statement to reporters outside the federal courthouse. “I believed it was about getting to the truth. I was wrong.”

Mix, 54, pleaded guilty to “intentionally causing damage without authorization to a protected computer.” Defense attorney Joan McPhee said Mix admitted he should have gotten permission before deleting the text messages between himself and a friend — a contractor who was working with him on ways to stop the underwater oil spew that followed the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in April 2010.

The plea marked the latest in a mixed bag of criminal prosecutions arising from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. In June, former BP executive David Rainey was acquitted on charges that he made false statements to investigators and a manslaughter trial stemming from the deaths of 11 rig workers is pending for two well-site leaders.

The texts, McPhee said, were largely personal exchanges with scant mention of the work he was doing. They were conversations peppered with references to meetings and at least one mention of the “spanking” BP was getting in the media, she said. Mostly they were about personal matters, such as home repair advice and lunch appointments.

McPhee accused the Justice Department of pursuing the case “recklessly.”

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval said Mix had worked “assiduously” on stopping the oil spill and agreed with prosecutors’ recommendation of probation.