BP Deepwater Supervisors Must Face Manslaughter Rap

[kpete]

Source: Law 360

BP Deepwater Supervisors Must Face Manslaughter Rap



Law360, New York (January 28, 2014, 6:30 PM ET) -- A Louisiana federal judge on Monday refused to toss manslaughter charges against two BP PLC supervisors for their roles in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, rejecting claims that the charges are unconstitutionally vague because they lack a clear standard of care that the supervisors allegedly violated.

The U.S. Department of Justice claims Robert Kaluza's and Donald Vidrine's negligence caused the 11 rig worker deaths in the Deepwater Horizon explosion, which sent nearly 5 million barrels of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. In denying Kaluza's...

Read more: http://www.law360.com/environmental/articles/504811/bp-deepwater-supervisors-must-face-manslaughter-rap

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OPINION HERE:
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/BP-criminal.pdf
MORE HERE:


Judge Duval, however, disagreed with the supervisor’s attorneys, saying external rules by BP were not necessary in order for the supervisors to be held accountable under criminal law.

“The statutes at issue in this matter have been interpreted to require ordinary negligence and gross negligence, which have well-settled legal meanings,” Judge Duval wrote, noting that the attorneys had provided no case law stating otherwise. “To find otherwise would mean that, absent an external standard of care, no ‘professional’ could be held accountable for such conduct.”

Judge Duval also noted that if the facts alleged in the case are true, it would be “difficult” to prove that the supervisors did not expect to be punished for their negligence. And even if they didn’t expect criminal charges, he wrote, it would not necessarily matter.

“Though a criminal may not foresee certain consequences, the law may still hold him or her accountable for negligent actions,” he wrote.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/29/1273503/-BP-Deepwater-Supervisors-Must-Face-Manslaughter-Rap

[tblue]

1. Supervisors? I want the CEO. I want that "small people" guy.

Like Abu Ghraib, it's only the low-hanging fruit that gets picked. That's just wrong. Arrest the ones who allowed such negligent (or worse) policies to continue, without due regard for human and environmental safety.

[codewalker]

2. It is Amazing How So Many Forget

This is an interesting turn of events within the process of judicial gears. I think it interesting to see how the justice of America can and does work in seeking out those responsible. I am most interested in seeing how it continues and if in fact it will serve me well when it comes time for prosecutions of those who committed foreign espionage on an American Inventor for his acts of inventing the device that allowed them to stop the massive spill from this massive disaster caused by all from the bottom up.

What I find even more amazing is how Americans seem to forget to continue to ask the question of who this man was once this disaster had been stopped. Amazing that I am must live as I do while the rights come to fruition's in the same manners as this very case. It would however, seem unjust that the potentials are that those at the top who had no issue or problems in their corporate intimidation actions toward others in this act of loss of life and in the taking of my design to use so as to continue to call it all their own and to share with their petro sisters in the taking of the billions in tax haven from the American Public via a 1 bln USD toolbox incorporating an integral design only one had invented, as their own invention should, that they themselves would not suffer the criminal laws just as these supervisors but I do remain in hope that they will.

FYI, the mystery plumber is and I can tell you, it was divine guidance that set me upon my lowly contacts with a Berkeley Professor.

Time is coming near for those involved, I have so been left to rot and I am not at all happy in this.That design was to help many and to set me free to re-build a life, yet they again plunder as pirates under the guise of politicos bureaucracy safety laws more tax haven than the American debt, one toolbox at a time. The law was needed, levied in 2010 with the moratorium and made into law in 2011 and capitalized with all those application permits to each well allowed, producing or not, a tax haven of 1bln USD before even a drop of crude has been extracted. And you all wonder why they still also make us pay more at the pumps and is simple, because they can and they think they hold the power when they ultimately do not. May Justice Prevail, as I await and work daily to find work from which to live, shelter and eat... unbelievable I should be left as this. He^ above does know and is why I live. Still a stranger in my own country... to all the poser's who wanted to and did make claim... signed ~ the real "Mystery Plumber"~ and p.s. " Thanks Bob, we'll be talking again, soon" ~b~

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0715/BP-oil-spill-Mystery-plumber-may-be-brains-behind-containment-cap