Tagged: justice department

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to set a new trial date for this summer for government claims against BP over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP has asked the judge to set a January 2013 trial date. 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — By arresting a former BP engineer, federal prosecutors are showing their hand in the Gulf oil spill case. They have been probing whether BP PLC and its employees broke the law by intentionally lowballing how much oil was spewing from its out-of-control well. The arrest came two years and four days after the drilling-rig explosion. 

A former BP engineer is the first person facing criminal charges stemming from the oil spill two years ago in the Gulf of Mexico. Allegations center on deleted text messages.

Former BP engineer Kurt Mix of Katy, Texas, is facing two counts of obstruction of justice. He’s accused of deleting 200 text messages exchanged with a company supervisor. Prosecutors say Mix was discussing internal information about failing efforts to cap the gushing underwater well.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Justice Department says its recent inspection of the New Orleans jail found "alarming conditions" and uncovered persistently high rates of prisoner-on-prisoner violence and staff misconduct. Authorities have been negotiating terms of a consent decree that would require certain changes at Orleans Parish Prison.