‘‘I think his trial represents the final chapter — at least in the political sense — in the debacle after Katrina. Everybody just wants to put it behind us. I think we want to forget about it, but I don’t think we’re ready to forgive.’’
Oh, he gets the blame! Not Bush, not Brownie, not FEMA, not the feds....
Related: Bronx Tour Gets Bronx Cheer
Yeah, some people still can not put it behind them because they were forgotten.
But the Globe and government they work for move on:
"Judge won’t drop Nagin bribery charges" by MICHAEL KUNZELMAN | Associated Press, October 17, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin asked a federal judge Wednesday to throw out his indictment on bribery charges, saying the case has been tainted by prosecutorial misconduct.
The alleged misconduct includes anonymous online posts about Nagin by a former federal prosecutor, said Nagin’s lawyer, Robert Jenkins.
Related: Anonymous For Not Much Longer
I guess that would be one way to silence me -- or not.
The former mayor pleaded not guilty in February to charges he accepted bribes, free trips, and other gratuities from contractors in exchange for helping them secure millions of dollars in city work.
Why is he being singled out? That's our $y$tem.
Jenkins asked for a copy of a sealed Justice Department report on anonymous comments by at least three federal prosecutors, but a US district judge rejected the request.
Oh, it was a whole gang of them poisoning the jury pool!!
Jenkins argued in a court filing there is also other evidence of prosecutorial misconduct that will deprive his client of a fair trial. The trial is scheduled to start on Oct. 28, but Jenkins asked Berrigan to postpone it, saying he needs more time to prepare.
Are there any fair trials in AmeriKa anymore?
Nagin was the subject of anonymous posts by a former prosecutor, who resigned after acknowledging his online activities.
--more--"
Hey, it worked for the Katrina killers, BP, Ted Stevens (then assassinated?), and Blackwater!
If I didn't know any better I would say the Feds are f***ing up these cases on purpose, but I know the crack lawyers of the government would never do that.
But back to Nagin:
"Former New Orleans mayor loses bid to quash charges" by Kevin McGill | Associated Press, October 19, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge refused Friday to throw out criminal charges against former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, who is accused of accepting bribes, free trips, and other gratuities from contractors in exchange for helping them secure millions of dollars in city work.
US District Judge Helen Berrigan’s brief ruling denied a motion filed earlier in the week by Nagin’s defense lawyer, Robert Jenkins, who alleged that prosecutorial misconduct, including anonymous online posts about Nagin by a former federal prosecutor, warranted dismissal of the charges.
Not in this case, huh?
The trial is scheduled to start Oct. 28, but Jenkins has asked Berrigan to postpone it, saying he needs more time to prepare.
Nagin pleaded not guilty in February. His indictment was the product of a City Hall corruption investigation that already has resulted in guilty pleas by two former city officials and two businessmen and a prison sentence for a former city vendor.
Nagin’s motion for dismissal came after a ruling last month by US District Judge Kurt Engelhardt in the case of five former New Orleans police officers convicted of civil rights violations linked to deadly shootings following Hurricane Katrina. Engelhardt cited evidence of ‘‘grotesque’’ prosecutorial misconduct and ordered a new trial for them.
Welcome to arbitrary AmeriKan ju$tice.
Engelhardt said at least three government attorneys posted anonymous comments on The Times-Picayune’s companion website and created a ‘‘carnival atmosphere’’ that perverted justice in the case....
It's what the whole society has become if you look the pri$m of the propaganda pre$$.
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I'm going to stop nagging him now.
"Bribery trial opens for ex-mayor of New Orleans" by Michael Kunzelman | Associated Press, January 28, 2014
NEW ORLEANS — Jury selection began Monday in the trial of former mayor Ray Nagin, who faces 21 charges that he accepted bribes and free trips among other items from contractors in exchange for helping them secure millions of dollars in city work.
Nagin, a Democrat who was mayor when Hurricane Katrina stuck in 2005, served two terms before leaving office in 2010. He was living in a Dallas suburb when a federal grand jury indicted him a year ago.
Nagin had little to say as he entered the federal courthouse with a noticeable limp.
A total of 39 potential jurors were screened Monday and sent home by US District Judge Helen Berrigan to await her final empaneling decision.
Each bribery count against Nagin carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Each wire fraud count is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
The charges are the product of a City Hall corruption investigation that already has resulted in several convictions of or guilty pleas by former Nagin associates.
Nagin’s indictment accuses him of accepting more than $160,000 in bribes and truckloads of free granite for his family business in exchange for promoting the interests of local businessman Frank Fradella.
That's all?
Nagin was also charged with accepting at least $60,000 in payoffs from another businessman, Rodney Williams, for his help in securing city contracts.
The indictment asserts that Nagin received free private jet and limousine services to New York from an unidentified businessman who owned a New Orleans movie theater. Nagin allegedly agreed to waive tax penalties the businessman owed to the city on a delinquent tax bill in 2006.
Which Jew are they protecting?
From several city contractors, Nagin is accused of accepting free travel and vacation expenses for trips to Hawaii, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Jamaica while in office.
The allegations aren’t limited to his tenure as mayor. Prosecutors said Nagin accepted monthly payoffs from Fradella totaling $112,250 after he left office.
Aaron Bennett, a businessman awaiting sentencing in a separate bribery case, told The Times-Picayune he introduced Nagin to Fradella specifically to help the mayor get a Home Depot contract for granite installation work for a business Nagin and his sons founded.
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Related: Witness says he brokered $50,000 bribe
"US rests case vs. ex-mayor Nagin" by Kevin McGill | Associated Press, February 06, 2014
NEW ORLEANS — Federal prosecutors rested their corruption case against former mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans Wednesday, leaving it to defense lawyers to counter five days of testimony from more than two dozen witnesses, including five who said they were involved in bribing Nagin.
Nagin served as mayor from 2002 to 2010. Prosecutors allege that corruption spanned the two terms and included the period after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, when contractors sought to benefit from potentially lucrative rebuilding jobs in the devastated city.
The final prosecution witness was Josephine Beninati, a financial analyst for the US attorney’s office, who discussed her examination of documents indicating Nagin got $511,000 in money, travel, cellular phone service, granite for his family business, and other benefits.
Prosecutors say it was all bribes the Democrat took during and after his two terms in office.
Defense lawyer Robert Jenkins has tried to attack the credibility of witnesses testifying under plea agreements.
And he has said there is no direct proof indicating Nagin traded benefits for money or services.
Cross examining Beninati, he questioned why she characterized payments from various contractors as bribes when they could easily be seen as investments.
He focused often on payments from lead prosecution witness Rodney Williams, saying Williams — prior to pleading guilty in the case — had once claimed his payments to Nagin’s family business were investments rather than bribes.
He also asked Beninati whether she misled jurors by displaying a chart indicating payments from Williams to Stone Age LLC — a Nagin family company — were made to Nagin himself.
‘‘Mr. Nagin is Stone Age,’’ Beninati said at one point.
It is unclear whether Nagin will testify in his own defense. The trial recessed for the day Wednesday afternoon after the defense called one witness, contractor Bill Edwards, who has done business with the city and who, under questioning from Jenkins, downplayed the role of the mayor in contracts awarded through public bids.
Earlier Wednesday, prosecutors called an investigative reporter to the stand to testify that Nagin tried to hide evidence of his meetings with businessmen who say they bribed the politician to get city backing for their projects.
Television reporter Lee Zurik talked about efforts to obtain Nagin’s meeting calendars from 2008.
Initially, he received pages with entries blacked out or blank. Under orders from a judge, Zurik said, WWL television was given a calendar with entries showing numerous meetings at different times with businessmen including Frank Fradella and Williams. Both men have said they bribed Nagin.
Zurik, now with WVUE in New Orleans, testified about Freedom of Information Act requests and a lawsuit that eventually led to the release of an unredacted version of Nagin’s meeting calendar.
In cross examination, Jenkins said the city turned over the calendars, making the point that there was no evidence that Nagin made the changes.
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"Ex-New Orleans mayor says witness lied; Nagin engages in testy exchange with prosecutor" by Kevin McGill | Associated Press, February 07, 2014
NEW ORLEANS — In sharp exchanges Thursday with a prosecutor in his corruption trial, former mayor Ray Nagin flatly denied seeking $60,000 from a contractor who had just been turned down for city business.
‘‘He lied,’’ Nagin said of key prosecution witness Rodney Williams, as Assistant US Attorney Matthew Coman questioned him about three $20,000 payments made by Williams’s company to Stone Age LLC, Nagin’s family-owned granite business.
The testy back-and-forth came during cross-examination of Nagin, who is being tried on a 21-count indictment with charges including bribery, money laundering, conspiracy, and filing false tax returns. His testimony, during which he also downplayed his power to approve no-bid contracts, lasted until the trial recessed for the evening.
Earlier Thursday, Nagin’s lawyer questioned him during a calm, point-by-point rebutting of allegations that he took hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes during and after his two terms, from 2002-2010. Prosecutors allege that his corruption included the period after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, when contractors sought to benefit from potentially lucrative rebuilding jobs.
Nagin gave his side a day after the prosecution rested, ending five days of testimony from more than two dozen prosecution witnesses, including Williams and four others who said they were involved in bribing the former mayor.
Exchanges with Coman were sharp but, at times, jocular. At one point, Coman discussed a Mardi Gras season mayoral ball that Williams attended. ‘‘Yes, with a thousand of my closest friends,’’ Nagin said.
In a more serious tone, Nagin denied knowing that a one-time city vendor paid for his family’s vacation to Hawaii in 2004, a trip that prosecutors have cast as one of several bribes he accepted.
‘‘If anything, Greg said he was paying for’’ the trip, Nagin said under questioning from his lawyer, Robert Jenkins. He was referring to Greg Meffert, his former technology chief.
Meffert has pleaded guilty in the case and awaits sentencing. He testified last week that Nagin was aware that Mark St. Pierre and his NetMethods company paid for the Hawaii trip. St. Pierre was convicted of bribery and other charges in 2011.
Nagin sought to put a more innocent spin on what prosecutors have tried to establish as evidence of his corruption.
Looks like the mouthpiece media has already convicted him.
He accepted a free private plane ride to Chicago for a Saints playoff game in early 2007 because flights out of New Orleans were still hard to arrange in the months after Katrina hit. He insisted that no business was discussed on the private plane of Frank Fradella, nor was it discussed in Chicago.
Congre$$ gets them all the time, and it's no big deal.
Nagin’s indictment says the flight was a payoff from Fradella, who has pleaded guilty in the case and testified that he bribed Nagin with cash and free granite for the foundering Nagin family granite business.
--more--"
"Ex-New Orleans mayor ends 2 days of testimony; Final arguments set for Monday" by Kevin McGill | Associated Press, February 08, 2014
NEW ORLEANS — Former mayor Ray Nagin ended two tense days on the witness stand Friday, insisting he was not involved in any bribes and struggling to justify expensive birthday, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and wedding anniversary dinners that were charged to the city’s credit card — benefits he paid no taxes on, and that, according to prosecutors, he took advantage of as the city struggled financially after Hurricane Katrina.
Related:
Feeling the Love
"Obamas feted Hollande during an opulent state dinner that night, where guests dined on American caviar and wine and enjoyed a performance by singer Mary J. Blige. Also part of the dessert lineup: cotton candy dusted with orange zest."
Oh, how sweet (as the South was under snow!!)!! Just charge it to the U.S. taxpayer!
‘‘Thank you, Jesus,’’ Nagin said Friday afternoon when US District Judge Helen Berrigan told him he could step down from the stand.
Nagin’s trial recessed for the weekend. Closing arguments are set for Monday, after which the trial goes to the jury.
The former mayor, a Democrat who served from 2002-2010, was indicted on 21 counts, including bribery, money laundering, conspiracy, and filing false tax returns. Prosecutors say he took hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of bribes including money, free travel, and granite for the business he and his sons owned, granite installers Stone Age LLC.
Assistant US Attorney Matthew Coman touched on all aspects of the charges in more than five hours of intense cross-examination. The last minutes were spent going over city credit card receipts and Nagin’s appointment calendar entries to show that various personal dinners were charged to the city.
Earlier, Coman confronted Nagin with evidence of phone calls, meetings, and checks from people who say they bribed him for city work or for his backing on development projects.
Nagin repeatedly downplayed his role in approving city contracts, particularly in the hectic days after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, when lucrative city rebuilding work was mounting.
Nagin stuck to his claim that he did not know that a city Internet technology vendor paid for an expensive trip to Jamaica. He said his then-tech chief, Greg Meffert, claimed to have paid for the trip. Meffert has testified that Nagin knew that now-imprisoned businessman Mark St. Pierre paid for the trip.
The former mayor acknowledged taking a $20,000-plus plane trip with his family to New York in 2006. ‘‘I don’t have any independent recollection of how we got there,’’ he said, adding that he learned only after the trip, upon seeing documentation, that it was paid for by a movie theater owner.
Who?
--more--"
Related:
Bribery case of ex-New Orleans mayor goes to jury
Nagin found guilty of taking bribes
While no fan of Nagin, not at all, it is interesting to note that the Feds came down on him when they let Wall Street banks walk. I suppose this will allow Holder and Obummer to claim they go after black leaders and there is no racism in this administration. Full of cla$$i$m, though.
Thus I would have steadfastly stuck to not guilty for if the government is $hit you must acquit!
FORTHCOMING UPDATE regarding sentencing:
Also see:
"The city’s beleaguered sheriff, Marlin Gusman, led three opponents in his race, despite having come under fire last year for problems at the city’s notoriously violent jail. An inmate-made video that surfaced showed drug use, drinking, and an inmate brandishing a loaded gun inside the jail. All the candidates in both races were Democrats."
That's under the new man.
I notice my propaganda pre$$ didn't make much of that video.
"Louisiana senator plans run for governor" by Melinda Deslatte | Associated Press, January 22, 2014
BATON ROUGE, La. — Senator David Vitter, a Republican, announced in a Tuesday e-mail to supporters that he will be a candidate in Louisiana’s 2015 governor’s race.
‘‘I believe that as our next governor, I can have a bigger impact addressing the unique challenges and opportunities we face in Louisiana,’’ the senator said in an e-mail.
Vitter’s announcement ends months of speculation about his intentions, and his decision is expected to influence which other potential candidates enter the race.
Governor Bobby Jindal is term-limited, so the race is wide open. Vitter can run without forfeiting his Senate seat, which is not up for reelection until 2016.
Vitter has held elected office for more than two decades as a state and federal lawmaker and easily won reelection to a second Senate term in 2010, despite ties to a prostitution scandal.
Which has gone down the propaganda pre$$ memory hole for some reason.
--more--"
Related:
"Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 52, the so-called ‘‘D.C. Madam’’ convicted of running a prostitution ring, hanged herself in Tarpon Springs, Fla."
Related: MSM Raises D.C. Madam From Dead
Also see: Vitter Revived in Louisiana
Fine crop of politicians you got down there in Louisiana.
Other trials taking place in Louisiana:
"Retrial to start in ex-officer’s Katrina shooting" by Michael Kunzelman | Associated Press, November 30, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — Three years after his manslaughter conviction, a former New Orleans police officer is getting a second chance to convince a jury he was justified in fatally shooting a man outside a strip mall during Hurricane Katrina’s chaotic aftermath.
Yeah, you jurors didn't get that one right the first time.
David Warren, whose retrial is scheduled to start Monday, was one of 20 officers charged in a series of federal investigations of alleged police misconduct in New Orleans. His December 2010 conviction was proclaimed as a major milestone in the Justice Department’s ambitious efforts to clean up the city’s troubled Police Department.
Warren was one of the first to be tried. He will also be the first of several officers to get a retrial as federal prosecutors, dogged by misconduct allegations of their own, try to salvage cases that many viewed as catalysts for healing the city’s post-Katrina wounds.
Just trying to help out fellow law enforcement!
Five of the 20 officers pleaded guilty and are serving prison sentences. Of the others, three were acquitted while seven had their convictions overturned and await retrials. Four had their convictions upheld. A prosecutor’s ill-advised remark led to a mistrial for another officer.
Metropolitan Crime Commission president Rafael Goyeneche, whose watchdog group frequently provides federal authorities with information about alleged police misconduct, said prosecutors’ setbacks may be only temporary.
The same jury that convicted Warren of fatally shooting 31-year-old Henry Glover also convicted another officer, Gregory McRae, of burning Glover’s body in a car after a good Samaritan drove the dying man to a makeshift police headquarters. A third former officer, Travis McCabe, was convicted of writing a false report on the shooting.
Warren was serving nearly 26 years in prison when a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that he should have been tried separately from four other officers charged with participating in a coverup to make Glover’s shooting appear justified.
--more--"
Related: New Trial Ordered For Katrina Killers
"Trial begins for ex-officer in Katrina shooting" by JANET McCONNAUGHEY | Associated Press, December 05, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — Henry Glover, the man who was shot by former New Orleans police officer David Warren just days after Hurricane Katrina, was simply lighting a cigarette when he was killed, a relative of the victim testified Wednesday.
Bernard Calloway said he and 31-year-old Glover intended to pick up family members from Glover’s New Orleans apartment and head out of town four days after the devastating 2005 storm. Glover, driving a stolen truck, stopped at a curb behind a strip mall where a sister-in-law of his said she had left a suitcase. Warren was nearby, on patrol on the second-floor area outside a police substation located in the mall.
Testifying on the first day of Warren’s retrial, Calloway said Glover was standing next to the truck and lighting a cigarette. Calloway said that as he turned back to the suitcase, he heard gunfire.
‘‘I heard POW! — A gunshot. I heard a voice that said, ‘Leave now,’ ’’ Calloway said. The men fled in opposite directions. Calloway looked back and saw Glover stumble. He looked back again and saw the victim fall. Calloway then ran back to help Glover, who was bleeding.
‘‘He just said to tell his mama that he loved her. He was holding his chest,’’ Calloway testified.
The trial is the second in three years for Warren, who was serving a prison sentence of nearly 26 years when a federal appeals court in December overturned a manslaughter conviction handed down in 2010.
--more--"
For some reason, that trial didn't get as much coverage in my Globe.
Related: Jury acquits officer in shooting after Katrina
I didn't know they had kangaroos in Louisiana, did you?
Also see:
"A 53-year-old man with no known criminal history is being held in lieu of $1 million bond, accused of shooting and killing a preacher during a revival service in southwest Louisiana."
That's one way of getting them to shaddup, I guess.
"Lawsuit settled in death of man infected by amoeba" by Michael Kunzelman | Associated Press, October 30, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — The parents of a Louisiana man whose death in 2011 was linked to a rare brain-eating amoeba have settled their lawsuit against the manufacturers of two household devices that they blamed for their son’s deadly infection. Settlement terms were not disclosed in a federal judge’s order that dismissed the wrongful-death lawsuit on Oct. 15.
Related: Louisiana Has Water on the Brain
Also been found in Arkansas, but government says it is all safe so....
Last year, Jeffrey Cusimano’s parents sued NeilMed Pharmaceuticals Inc., maker of a ‘‘neti pot’’ that the 28-year-old used to clean his sinuses with water. They also sued Rheem Manufacturing Co., which made a water heater in his home. Their lawsuit claimed defects in both devices allowed Cusimano to become infected by Naegleria fowleri, a microscopic organism that was found in St. Bernard Parish’s water system.
State health officials linked the same amoeba to the August 2013 death of a 4-year-old boy from Mississippi who was visiting a home in St. Bernard Parish. A total of 32 infections linked to the amoeba were reported in the United States between 2001 and 2010.
--more--"
While we are in the waters of Louisiana:
"Study says tiny animals hurt by BP spill" by Janet McConnaughey | Associated Press, September 26, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — The vast 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill damaged the tiny animals that live on the sea floor for about 57 square miles around the blown-out BP oil well, with severe damage in about nine square miles of that area, a researcher from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi said.
Pollution and damage to animal life was severe nearly two miles from the wellhead and identifiable more than 10 miles away, Paul Montagna wrote in a report published Tuesday in the online journal PLOS One.
Montagna, a professor of ecosystems and modeling, said the refrigerator-cold water a mile beneath the surface means oil takes longer to decay than in shallower waters. That means full recovery could take a generation or more, he said in an interview Wednesday.
What? I was told years ago that the water was fine now!
‘‘This is the first large-scale examination of the impact on the soft bottom, which is the largest habitat in deep water,’’ said Robert Carney, a deep-sea ecologist and professor in Louisiana State University’s department of oceanography and coastal sciences. Carney, who was not part of this study, said that it was well done.
They were able to get through the six inches of asphalt?
He said he was not surprised by the extent of the damage, given the size and reach of the oil spill. BP PLC’s Macondo well blew wildly for nearly three months starting April 20, 2010, when a blast on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers.
‘‘The plume . . . drifted all over the place,’’ so oil that became heavy enough to sink could cover a large area, Carney said.
The study is part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment that will help decide what damages BP must pay. Montagna said he expects to be subpoenaed as part of the litigation spawned by the oil spill, since he was working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and with NOAA scientists.
BP issued a statement expressing skepticism about some details of the report....
--more--"
"BP trial to focus on oil spill’s size; Extent of 2010 Gulf disaster is key to damages" by Clifford Krauss | New York Times, September 30, 2013
HOUSTON — With billions of dollars in penalties at stake, the civil trial of the British oil company BP begins its second phase Monday, which will set the amount of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, which killed 11 workers and soiled hundreds of miles of beaches.
Translation: what is BP willing to pay?
The government will argue that a total 4.2 million barrels of oil was discharged into the sea over 87 days, the equivalent of nearly one-quarter of all the oil that is consumed in the United States in a day. BP will counter that the number was closer to 2.45 million barrels. This phase of the trial will also determine if BP prepared adequately for a blowout and if it responded properly once the oil started flowing.
Both sides will present their case in US District Court in New Orleans using competing technical calculations over the next four weeks. Hanging in the balance are Clean Water Act fines that range from a maximum of $1,100 for every barrel spilled through simple negligence to as much as $4,300 a barrel if a company is found to have been grossly negligent.
“This will be largely a battle of experts,” Blaine G. LeCesne, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans.
The first phase of the trial, which took place over two months this year, centered on whether BP and its contractors were guilty of gross negligence — tantamount to wanton and reckless behavior — in causing the blowout of the Macondo well.
Related:
"BP PLC’s fourth-quarter profit fell 30 percent as the asset sales that it has pursued to compensate victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster reduced production. The company said Tuesday that net income slid to $1.04 billion from $1.49 billion in the year-ago quarter."
Also see: Big Boost in BP Profit
Yeah, these are trying times over at BP!
Judge Carl J. Barbier has not ruled yet on the question in the bench trial. But if he agrees with the government’s position that there was gross negligence and that 4.2 million barrels was spilled, the fines could amount to more than $18 billion.
“They would have to sell assets to keep the company afloat,” said Fadel Gheit, a senior oil analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. “It would wipe out all of their cash.”
What BULL$HIT!
But if BP’s position is upheld that there was simple negligence and only 2.45 million barrels was spilled, then the total fines would amount to roughly $2.7 billion. In all likelihood, a decision or settlement will reach a dollar figure in between, legal experts say....
Translation: Both sides have agreed on the figure, and the government and propaganda pre$$ are giving you this $hit-fooley for a show.
The plaintiffs, which include the federal government, several Gulf states, and private claims seekers, have argued in papers that BP “repeatedly lied to key decision makers about the flow rate of the well.”
BP lied?
Heck of a thing having the largest liar on the planet calling someone else out.
The contractors Halliburton and Transocean have joined with the plaintiffs and government in arguing that BP lied about the flow rate, delaying the final capping of the well.
Transocean has already pleaded guilty for its role in the spill and agreed to pay $1.4 billion in civil and criminal fines. Halliburton pleaded guilty to criminal charges for destroying computer test results that had been sought as evidence and agreed to pay $200,000 in fines.
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That is a heck of a lot of money compared to Nagin, isn't it?
Related: Judge hears conflicting estimates of BP oil spill
Anyone going to jail for this?
"Ex-Halliburton manager pleads guilty in BP oil spill" by Michael Kunzelman | Associated Press, October 16, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — A former Halliburton manager pleaded guilty Tuesday to destroying evidence in the aftermath of the deadly rig explosion that spawned BP’s massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Anthony Badalamenti, 62, of Katy, Texas, faces a maximum sentence of 1 year in prison and a $100,000 fine after his guilty plea in US District Court to one misdemeanor count of destruction of evidence. His sentencing by US District Judge Jay Zainey is set for Jan. 21.
Badalamenti was the cementing technology director for Halliburton Energy Services Inc., BP’s cement contractor on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Prosecutors said he instructed two Halliburton employees to delete data during a post-spill review of the cement job on BP’s blown-out Macondo well.
Last month, a federal judge accepted a separate plea agreement calling for Halliburton to pay a $200,000 fine for a misdemeanor stemming from Badalamenti’s conduct. Halliburton also agreed to be on probation for three years and to make a $55 million contribution to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, but that payment was not a condition of the deal.
The April 20, 2010, rig explosion killed 11 workers and led to the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.
In May 2010, according to prosecutors, Badalamenti directed a senior program manager to run computer simulations on centralizers, which are used to keep the casing centered in the wellbore. The results indicated there was little difference between using six or 21 centralizers. The data could have supported BP’s decision to use the lower number.
Badalamenti is accused of instructing the program manager to delete the results. The program manager “felt uncomfortable” about the instruction but complied, according to prosecutors.
A different Halliburton employee also deleted data from a separate round of simulations at the direction of Badalamenti, who was acting without company authorization, prosecutors said.
Halliburton notified investigators from a Justice Department task force about the deletion of data. Efforts to recover the data were not successful.
Badalamenti was not the first charged with a crime stemming from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, but he is the first to plead guilty.
BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine await a trial next year on manslaughter charges stemming from the rig workers’ deaths. They botched a safety test and disregarded abnormally high pressure readings that were glaring signs of trouble before the blowout, prosecutors say.
Former BP executive David Rainey is charged with concealing information from Congress about the amount of oil that was spewing from the blown-out well. Former BP engineer Kurt Mix is charged with deleting text messages and voicemails about the company’s response to the spill.
Good thing the NSA kept a copy.
Two floors down from the courtroom where Badalamenti pleaded guilty, US District Judge Carl Barbier is presiding over a trial for spill-related civil litigation. For the trial’s second phase, Barbier is hearing dueling estimates from specialists for BP and the federal government about the amount of oil that spewed into the Gulf.
--more--"
Related: Probation in gulf oil spill case
That sets a precedent, right?
Former BP worker set for oil spill trial
Jury considers fate of former BP engineer
Jury at a 'at a standstill' in trial of ex-BP engineer
Must have been stuck in the oil-fouled waters before they got swimming again:
"Former BP worker convicted on obstruction of justice" by Michael Kunzelman | Associated Press, December 19, 2013
NEW ORLEANS — The first criminal trial produced by the Justice Department’s sweeping investigation of BP’s massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ended Wednesday with a jury convicting a drilling engineer of trying to obstruct investigators by deleting text messages from his cellular phone.
Kurt Mix, a former BP employee who worked on the company’s efforts to stop the nation’s worst offshore oil spill, embraced stunned relatives and friends after jurors convicted him of an obstruction-of-justice charge punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The jury acquitted Mix of a second count.
Mix, a 52-year-old from Katy, Texas, declined to be interviewed after the verdict, but his attorneys vowed to fight his conviction.
Attorney General Eric Holder visited New Orleans in 2010 to announce that the Justice Department had opened criminal investigations of the spill.
Related: Goodbye, Eric Holder?
No word on that yet from my Globe(?). I guess Toobin and the New Yorker got it wrong.
Is there anything the propaganda pre$$ gets right anymore?
Mix, who was arrested in April 2012, was the first of four current or former BP employees charged with spill-related crimes.
BP took corporate responsibility for its role in the catastrophe earlier this year, pleading guilty in January to manslaughter charges for the workers’ deaths and agreeing to pay a record $4 billion in penalties. But none of the top executives at the London-based oil giant have been charged with crimes.
Related: BP’s U.S. Defense Contracts Doubled Since Year of Gulf Oil Spill
Probably has nothing to do with not being charged, though.
David Uhlmann, a University of Michigan law professor and former chief of the Justice Department’s environmental crimes section, said Mix was a ‘‘sympathetic defendant’’ because his conduct seemed relatively minor in the context of a disaster that killed 11 workers and spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf. Uhlmann, however, said the Justice Department appropriately has a ‘‘zero-tolerance policy’’ for those who destroy evidence.
Unless they (or Wall Street) are the ones doing it!
What was in WTC 7 anyway (in addition to the CIA offices and Enron records)?
A Justice Department official, Mythili Raman, thanked federal agents for their ‘‘dedication and tenacity’’ on the case.
The government flaks didn't f*** this one up with misconduct, huh?
If I were Mix I would be furious!
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"Ex-BP engineer convicted on 1 obstruction charge" New York Times, December 19, 2013
HOUSTON — Nearly four years after the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion that left 11 dead, a former low-level BP engineer was found guilty Wednesday of obstruction of justice for deleting messages during a federal investigation into how much oil leaked.
Kurt Mix, a drilling and completions project engineer from Katy, Texas, was the first of four current or former BP employees charged criminally for actions related to the well blowout to be tried and convicted.
A federal jury in New Orleans deliberated for more than nine hours before deciding that Mix had been trying to destroy evidence by deleting voice and text communications between himself and a supervisor and a BP contractor.
Prosecutors had argued that some of the messages suggested that company officials knew that an effort to stop the leak in the early days of the 2010 spill would most likely fail, largely because of the overwhelming amount of oil flowing out of the well.
--more--"
So important it made two sections of my paper!
Also see:
Federal appeals court hears BP deal dispute
Court hands BP win over settlements
BP is Freeh!
BP pushes technical limits to tap extreme fields
They didn't learn a goddamn thing, did they?
Expect more oil "spills" -- as if it's an oops, sorry situation!!
