Ex-BP engineer charged over texts heads to trial

NEW ORLEANS – A jury is set to hear the Justice Department’s case against a former BP drilling engineer charged with deleting text messages and voicemails about the company’s response to its massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Jury selection for Kurt Mix’s federal trial is scheduled to start Monday in New Orleans.

Mix is one of four current or former BP employees charged with crimes related to the deadly disaster or its aftermath. His case is the first to be tried.

The Katy, Texas, resident pleaded not guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors claim he deliberately deleted text messages to and from a supervisor and a BP contractor to prevent them from being used in a grand jury’s probe of the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.