Ex-BP Engineer Asks Judge to Recuse Himself

A former BP engineer convicted of obstructing a Justice Department probe of the company’s 2010 Gulf oil spill has asked a judge to disqualify himself from the case.

In a court filing late Wednesday, Kurt Mix’s lawyers say they learned last week that U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. and his law clerk assigned to the case filed civil claims in 2013 for damages against BP.

Duval had disclosed in 2012 that his family owns a beachfront vacation home in Grand Isle and was entitled to seek compensation from BP.

Defense attorneys argue Duval must recuse himself from the case before ruling on their request for a new trial for Mix, who was convicted last month of obstruction of justice for deleting text messages to and from a BP supervisor.