Tagged: BP oil spill

Two Hollywood stars could spend the next two weeks in a New Orleans courtroom rather than on camera, on opposite sides in a real-life legal drama.

Jury selection is scheduled Monday for Stephen Baldwin's federal lawsuit against fellow actor Kevin Costner over their investments in a device BP used in trying to clean up the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Both are expected to testify. U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman says every litigant must be in court every day because of the seriousness of the claims and in case of mid-trial settlement talks.

A federal magistrate has scheduled a hearing on a former BP engineer's request for permission to travel freely throughout the U.S. while he awaits a trial on charges he deleted text messages about the oil company's response to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. Magistrate Daniel Knowles III is set to hear arguments May 29 on Kurt Mix's request.

Earlier this month, Knowles ordered Mix to limit his travel to Louisiana, Texas, Massachusetts and New York after a prosecutor claimed he had intended to leave the country for a job in Australia and wouldn't return.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A former BP engineer charged with deleting text messages about how much oil was leaking from the company's blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico is claiming that evidence federal investigators did not possess will prove him innocent. Kurt Mix has pleaded not guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a 41-year-old businessman who moved to New Orleans from Georgia after the catastrophic BP oil spill in 2010 has been charged with defrauding a compensation fund set up for victims.

The Justice Department says Dwayne Smith was charged last week on one count of mail fraud.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten alleges Smith moved to New Orleans four months after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and set up a business called D&D Designs.