Lawyers acting for the first BP worker facing trial over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster have failed in a bid to have the case declared a mistrial.
Attorneys for Kurt Mix claimed that questions to witness Wilson Arabie at Monday’s hearing had gone against a court order preventing prosecutors from discussing certain issues.
But while judge Sanwood Duval Jr said he would order the jury to disregard the testimony from the hearing, he declined to scrap the trial entirely.
The 52-year-old, from Katy, Texas, denies two charges of obstructing justice by deleting text messages to and from his superior and from a contractor.
Each count carries a sentence of up to 20 years in jail and a fine of $250,000.
Meanwhile Judge Duval dismissed some of the manslaughter charges faced by two BP supervisors over the 11 deaths caused by the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine had been facing 11 counts of ‘seaman’s manslaughter’, but the judge said the charges exceeded the scope of the law over their jobs as site leaders.
The pair still face 11 other counts of involundary manslaughter. The trial is due to start next June.
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