Lawyers for a former BP engineer convicted of trying to obstruct a probe of the company's 2010 Gulf oil spill plan to seek the disqualification of the federal judge who presided over their client's trial last month.
In an order, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. says he received correspondence Tuesday in which Kurt Mix's lawyers argue for their first time that he must disqualify himself from the case because a spill-related civil claim had been filed on his behalf last year.
Duval says he informed defense attorneys and Justice Department prosecutors in 2012 that his family owns a beachfront vacation home in Grand Isle and was entitled to seek compensation from BP, but didn't see any reason to recuse himself.
Mix is seeking a new trial following his obstruction-of-justice conviction.