BP engineer who wrote telling e-mails pleads the Fifth to avoid testifying at oil spill hearings

[nashville_brook]

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/08/oil_spill_hearings_bp_engineer.html


BP engineer who wrote telling e-mails pleads the Fifth to avoid testifying at oil spill hearings

David Hammer | The Times-Picayune
(This is an update from the joint hearings by the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement investigating the causes of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion on April 20.)

.
A key witness in the federal investigation of what went wrong on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig has pleaded the Fifth to avoid testifying in Houston on Tuesday. Brian Morel, a BP engineer who was part of a team that designed the Macondo well that blew April 20, is the second witness to invoke his constitutional right to not answer questions from a joint Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management panel.

William W. Taylor, Morel's attorney, appeared before the panel Tuesday and said Morel would have declined to answer any questions from the panel, citing his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.

Morel is significant because of e-mail messages he sent and received in the days leading up to the disaster. Those messages were released by a congressional committee. In one, Morel referred to the project as a "nightmare well." In another, he commented on the time and money BP would save by using a single, long production string of casing in the middle of the well, rather than another plan that would have shut off the space through which dangerous gas could flow. The design Morel and others at BP signed off on has been criticized by experts because it did not include important barriers to block natural gas from flowing to the surface. It was a bulge of methane gas that shot up the well and a mile of underwater riser pipe to set off explosions on the rig.

Morel also debated in e-mail messages the relative safety of using more or fewer devices called centralizers to ensure a better cement sealing job. He questioned models from contractor Halliburton that said BP's plan to use fewer centralizers would increase the risk of gas flow in the well.

(snip)

[tularetom]

1. When someone takes the fifth they have incriminated themselves anyway

At least in the minds of the people that read or hear that they have done so.

If Mr Morel has any culpability in the Deepwater Horizon CF, he'd be better off trying to make a deal with the government in return for his testimony .

Maybe this fifth amendment talk is his first shot at a plea bargain.

[nashville_brook]

2. maybe by pleading the fifth he's putting out an "i'll deal" sign

[jberryhill]

5. Yes, whenever you are accused or suspected, you should talk

Always tell the police, "why of course you can search my house" and "I don't need a lawyer, what would you like to know?"

Very clever how you've got that 5th Amendment thing all figured out.

[tularetom]

6. I assume you are attempting to be sarcastic

Otherwise you are giving very stupid advice.

It appears that they have Mr Morel by the short and curlies and his fifth amendment talk is his attempt to squeeze some sort of plea bargain out of them.

I doubt they are really interested in him anyway. He's just bait to catch somebody higher up on the food chain.

[jberryhill]

7. I was responding to the notion that invocation of the 5th is an admission

It is a Constitutional right, and not some kind of gimmick for shady characters that sneaked into the Bill of Rights.

To suggest otherwise is nonsense.

[tularetom]

8. You are absolutely right it is definitely not an admission of any kind

Unfortunately it is perceived as such by many citizens who have seen it invoked by people who later turned out to have something to hide.

It is also a bargaining chip between prosecutors and witnesses in plea negotiations. And I think Mr Morel may be using it to exact some kind of immunity from the prosecutors in return for ratting out some of his superiors at BP.

[Posteritatis]

9. Of course a lot of people consider pleading the fifth exactly the same as a confession

A lot of people consider accusation to be exactly the same as conviction, too.

There's a reason a lot of people don't have much of a say on how court cases turn out.

[Poboy]

3. k&r

[nashville_brook]

4. kicking for visibility

[Poboy]

10. ttt

[malaise]

11. Surprise!

NOT

[Poboy]

12. once more.

[Mimosa]

13. Nashville, your coverage of the BP GOM catastrophe is appreciated.

Thank you for keeping us informed.

[blindpig]

14. When...

do we storm BP headquarters?

When do we storm Wall St.?