Two former BP bosses will face involuntary manslaughter charges over the 2010 Macondo disaster after failing to have the case against them dropped.
Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine will go to trial this summer on 11 counts of involuntary manslaughter and one of breaching clean water legislation.
US District Judge Stanwood Duval had previously dismissed 11 counts of ship officers’ manslaughter, but yesterday upheld the other charges against the two men.
Prosuecutors claim the pair, who were site managers with BP, failed to properly supervise the test to keep gas and fluids from entering the Gulf of Mexico well, and failing to contact engineers after learning the well was not secure.
The blowout of the well and subsequent explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 people and caused the largest offshore oil spil in US history.
Lawyers for the pair had claimed that the laws they had been charged under were unconstitutionally vague, but Judge Duval dismissed the claim given the ‘inherent danger’ in deepwater drilling.
Last year Kurt Mix was found guilty of obstructing justice after deleting text messages relating to the spill. He has launched a bid for a retrial ahead of sentencing in March.
Former BP exploration vice president David Rainey will also go to court in March, facing charges of obstructing US Congress and lying to investigators.
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