By Kathy Finn
NEW ORLEANS, Nov 6 (Reuters) - A former BP Plc engineer charged with obstructing justice after the 2010 Gulf ofMexico oil spill pleaded guilty to a lesser charge on Friday andwas sentenced to six months of probation, his lawyers said.
Kurt Mix, who had been tasked by BP to analyze the flow rateof oil gushing from its blown-out Macondo well, entered his pleabefore U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval in New Orleans.
Prosecutors accused Mix of deleting hundreds of text andvoice messages that may have proven BP lied about how much oilwas leaking into the gulf in what became the worst offshoreenvironmental disaster in U.S. history.
The engineer was convicted in 2013 on one count ofobstructing justice, but Duval later threw out the convictionbecause of misconduct by the jury foreman. It was a setback forthe U.S. Department of Justice's effort to hold individualscriminally liable for the explosion of the Deepwater Horizondrilling rig and its aftermath.
Mix pleaded guilty on Friday to a misdemeanor charge ofintentionally damaging a protected computer withoutauthorization. Federal prosecutors dropped an obstruction ofjustice charge, Mix's lawyers said.
As part of his plea, Mix admitted to deleting a text messageconversation with a co-worker who was also a close friend. Thetexts were mostly personal and did not include importantinformation about the oil spill, his lawyers said.
"The resolution of this case is a vindication of Kurt Mixand an acknowledgement by the Department of Justice that Kurtnever acted to obstruct justice," said his lawyer, Joan McPhee."This is a case that never should have been brought."
The Justice Department did not immediately comment.
The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers andtriggered an 87-day oil spill. (Additional reporting and writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editingby Sandra Maler)