NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Jury selection is underway in the Justice Department's case against a former BP engineer charged with deleting text messages and voicemails about the company's response to its massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Dozens of potential jurors filled a New Orleans courtroom on Monday for the start of Kurt Mix's federal trial.
Mix is charged with two counts of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors claim he deliberately deleted strings of text messages to and from a supervisor and a BP contractor to hamper a grand jury's investigation of the spill.
The 52-year-old resident of Katy, Texas, is one of four current or former BP employees charged with crimes related to the nation's worst offshore oil spill. His case is the first to be tried.
