Feds Make 1st Arrest in BP Oil Spill Case

abcnews.go.com...

The Justice Department says the first criminal charges in the Deepwater Horizon disaster have been filed against a former BP engineer who allegedly destroyed evidence.

Kurt Mix, of Katy, Texas was arrested on charges of intentionally destroying evidence. He faces two counts of obstruction of justice.

He is accused of deleting text messages with a BP supervisor about how the efforts to cap the well were not working.
BP had no comment.
I wonder why this guy would risk deleting the texts? By this point it was known how bad it was, and surely there would be an investigation where deleted texts could be retrieved.
I hope there are many more arrests to follow this one.

Originally posted by toolstarr
abcnews.go.com...

The Justice Department says the first criminal charges in the Deepwater Horizon disaster have been filed against a former BP engineer who allegedly destroyed evidence.

Kurt Mix, of Katy, Texas was arrested on charges of intentionally destroying evidence. He faces two counts of obstruction of justice.

He is accused of deleting text messages with a BP supervisor about how the efforts to cap the well were not working.
BP had no comment.
I wonder why this guy would risk deleting the texts? By this point it was known how bad it was, and surely there would be an investigation where deleted texts could be retrieved.
I hope there are many more arrests to follow this one.

I just saw this on CNN.... This is good, people need to pay, not just monetarily, for the deepwater horizon disaster.... I hope more criminal charges begin to flood in... People need to be held responsible, especially when they make a part of the Gulf uninhabitable... They reported that 206 million gallons was released into the gulf, are we suppose to believe that the figure the media was told to release is accurate?? I bet you the number is FAR greater than what was reported... Anyways, this is good news...

So it's against the law to delete text messages?

I could see being told explicitly not to delete them then deleting them but if I had 200 messages in my phone I'd delete them just like any other piece of trash.

It says right in the post office lobby, Read, Respond, Recycle. Not Read, Respond, Horde.

What about Dick? Didn't he buy a huge oil clean up company a week or two before the spill took place? Smells fishy there.

Possible "scapegoat" for BP to appease the people?

Seems odd that it has taken this long for an "arrest" to occur..especially one as insignificant as this engineer in the bigger scheme of things no?

Sounds like a "sacrifice" of a lower rung employee to save face amongst the higher up executives to keep business as usual for BP.

Well, I imagine some of these low level working stiffs made the technical actions that caused everything else to happen. I mean, someone was there to physical do the things that were done...or not done..and it wasn't the BP executives. However.. BP management helped set the climate and attitudes which PERMITTED everything that followed and their Subs sure didn't help correct that and push an atmosphere of sticking to every rule. Hardly.

Nice that they are getting someone... I'll consider it progress when it's more than the hired hands on the rigs themselves or the equivalent for low level people on shore. This is just finding goats to slaughter for a pissed off public..and I'm personally unimpressed.

Originally posted by Ericthenewbie
Possible "scapegoat" for BP to appease the people?

Seems odd that it has taken this long for an "arrest" to occur..especially one as insignificant as this engineer in the bigger scheme of things no?

Sounds like a "sacrifice" of a lower rung employee to save face amongst the higher up executives to keep business as usual for BP.

the higher up executives werent on that deepwater rig, I'm not sure how it would be their fault.... That would be like saying the General of the US Army is held responsible when a soldier goes crazy and kills innocent people... I want the people who were directly responsible on the rig to be held accountable...

There is no way this sticks. People delete old txts all the time. I delete all txts to help performance of my phone all the time. Not saying he didn't delete them to rid evidence, but just saying this doesn't have a chance in hell.

My service deleats texts after 1 month. There are some that I wanted to save but after 30 days they're gone. Oh well, I guess I should just download everything to the laptop

reply to post by jhn7537


I think yes, certain little guys on the rig should be held accountable but when I tie the higher up executives to the situation, it's for a variety of reasons that they are directly involved in such as encouraging short cuts for profits that increase risks of disasters or for their handling of the "so-called" clean up and subsequent media/pr cover up after the fact.

Here's another article on the news....

Ex-BP engineer arrested in probe of Deepwater Horizon spill

...Mix was a drilling and completions engineer for BP. According to the court documents, he worked on BP's efforts to estimate the flow of oil from the well and on efforts to staunch the leak. BP sent Mix "numerous messages" to preserve all information and communications regarding the Macondo well, including text messages, the documents said.

On or around Oct, 4, 2010, after Mix learned that his electronic files would be collected for BP's lawyers, he allegedly deleted from his iPhone a string of more than 200 text messages with his BP supervisor, according to the court papers...

BP Spill Affidavit

BP Spill Criminal Complaint


scapegoat, or possibly someone that can be given immunity for turning over more information?