The highest-ranking Transocean worker on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig will not testify in civil lawsuits related to the accident, according to court documents.
Jimmy Wayne Harrell, the rig’s offshore installation manager, was scheduled to give a deposition in the case on July 11.
But in an update filed Monday on the dozens of lawsuits brought against BP, Transocean and other companies and individuals involved in the accident, Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan noted Harrell would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
“The parties have been advised that Harrell will invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege,” the filing said.
Harrell was in charge of drilling activities on the Deepwater Horizon, and was a key conduit for decisions between the well operator, BP, and the drilling crew.
Doug Brown, an electrician on the rig, said during testimony before a joint U.S. Coast Guard/Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement investigation hearing that Harrell and Don Vidrine — one of BP’s two onsite supervisors — got into an argument over plans to complete the well.
“I guess that’s what we have those pinchers for,” Harrell mumbled, according to Brown, at the end of the argument, a reference to the shearing rams in the blowout preventer that are supposed to seal off the well in a blowout.
Vidrine declined to testify in the Coast Guard/BOEMRE hearings. In his own testimony before the investigators in May 2010, Harrell downplayed the dispute.
It’s not clear if Harrell will be required to show up at the deposition or if his attorney will be allowed to do it in his place.
Since February more than a dozen employees of the companies involved in the lawsuit have been questioned by lawyers tied to the lawsuits. The depositions have been closed to the public.
“The parties have been advised that Harrell will invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege,” the filing said.
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Whether you agree or not on what he’s doing or has done, it’s his RIGHT, not a privilege.
So this is what it’s going to come down to. The people who could have made a difference and kept this from happening are going to crawfish out of talking, and it will take someone working under them to ferret out the bad guys.
I listened to Jimmy Wayne Harrell’s previous testimony before the Coast Guard. His testimony lasted several hours and he was the most credible of the bunch.
Raining_Witch, Mr. Harrell gave extensive testimony during the Coast Guard hearings. He did not crawfish out.
Horizon is a prime example of where the safety culture failed. As the OIM, he was ultimately responsible to ensure that operations were conducted according to well established Federal and International safety rules and regulations. Mr. Harrell, Transocean, BP and anyone else that sacrificed the safety of all hands aboard Horizon at the altar of the almighty dollar has blood on their hands. Why criminal charges have yet to be persued against the OIM, the Company Man and others is beyond me.
Man up and testify, Mr. Harrell. You owe it to your crew, to the 11 hands who perished, and to everyone on the Gulf Coast who were affected, to give a full accounting from the start of the job to the end of the job, why you allowed things to happen the way it did. Only someone with something to hide invokes their Fifth Amendment rights.
I think the real crawfish are the politicians. Blowout prevention bill HR 5626, introduced while the oil was still pouring in the Gulf, was VOTED DOWN.
Again this year, the recommendations for blowout prevention, made by the Deepwater Horizon Committee, were passed before congress and again VOTED DOWN, exclusively by Republicans this time. ( I didn’t check the voting record on the first one, but I’ll bet it’s similar.)
So I’m guessing we should all be prepared for yet another ‘worse case scenario’ oil spill….. since we’re not taking any steps to change the way corporations do business.
Profits before environment! Yea!!
Drop his tail in Gitmo and let Dick Cheney waterboard some answers out of him.
Commrade_leftist:
Federal law no longer recognizes a distinction between a “right” and a “privilege.” The Supreme Court has held for decades that the Constitution protects both equally. Here’s a Harvard Law Review article that gives you the whole tortured history of how the distinction first came about and why it was ultimately a distinction without a difference:
http://www.constitution.org/cmt/right-privilege.htm
I didn’t think you had a 5th ammendment right in a civil proceeding.. just in a criminal case.
Halliburton… the new mafia!
HR1754 – Sure you do, but it’s not usually wise to sit mute in a lawsuit when accusations are being hurled about you. Unless you’re concerned about the possibility of subsequent criminal proceedings against you.
“Profits before environment! Yea!!”
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Then turn off your computer and move back to the woods! Yea!
After the Coast Guard report it is little wonder people are going to stop talking, the USCG ROI document is a disgrace, consisting of self contradictory data, gratuitous slanders, conclusions based on nothing in the record of evidence and insults against the integrity of people who died trying to avert disaster.
The USGC ROI is a disgrace to the proud tradition of maritime incident investigations and a clear warning to everyone involved that truth, facts and integrity are irrelevant in the ongoing process.
Mr. Harrell is well advised to steer clear of the entire process of civil and criminal court proceedings in the poisoned atmosphere created by the insults to justice entered into the public record by the children running the Coast Guard investigation.
Keep your head down, Jimmy.
Harleyrider1754:
The Supreme Court held long ago that the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination applies in both civil and criminal proceedings.