Ex-BP executive acquitted of lying about size of Macondo spill

MARGARET CRONIN FISK

NEW ORLEANS (Bloomberg) -- A former BP Plc executive charged with lying to investigators about the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill was acquitted by a New Orleans jury, a blow to prosecutors as the company awaits word on billions of dollars in potential fines for the disaster.

Other BP employees still have trials to face, with two former well-site managers charged with manslaughter scheduled to have their cases heard starting in February. An engineer charged with destroying evidence had his conviction reversed with an appeals court ordering a new trial for him.

The New Orleans jury sided with the lawyer for David Rainey, BP’s former V.P. of Gulf of Mexico exploration, who called the case one of “prosecutors’ overreach.”

The top-ranking executive at BP to be charged in the oil spill, Rainey on Thursday denied working out the numbers to match the government’s initially low assessment of the spill.

The jury was already deciding a narrower case than the government initially proposed.

U.S. District Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt threw out an obstruction of Congress charge on Monday, the first day of the trial.

On Wednesday, Engelhardt blasted the government for basing its prosecution on a federal investigator’s notes instead of a recorded interview of Rainey.

Relying on such evidence is “very dangerous territory,” the judge said outside the presence of the jury.

The judge said Friday he thought the jury had reached “the correct verdict, based on the evidence.”