Donald J. Vidrine, who faced federal prosecution as one of two BP supervisors on the Deepwater Horizon when the drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, killing 11 rig workers and causing the nation’s worst offshore oil spill, died June 3 at his home in Baton Rouge. He was 69.
Robert Habans, an attorney who defended Mr. Vidrine against federal manslaughter charges in the deaths of the rig workers, confirmed the death. An obituary posted online by Martin & Castille Funeral Home in Louisiana said the cause was cancer.
The deadly rig explosion off Louisiana’s coast unleashed an estimated 134 million gallons of crude spewing into the gulf over the course of nearly three months.
Mr. Vidrine and fellow rig supervisor Robert Kaluza were indicted in 2012 on manslaughter charges, but the case eventually fizzled after a judge threw out some of the manslaughter charges and prosecutors elected to drop the rest.
Mr. Vidrine pleaded guilty in December 2015 to a misdemeanor pollution charge and was sentenced to 10 months of probation. A jury acquitted Kaluza after a trial in which Mr. Vidrine testified as a government witness.
Federal prosecutors accused the two BP “well site leaders” of botching a key safety test and disregarding abnormally high pressure readings indicating signs of trouble ahead of BP’s well blowout in April 2010.
Defense attorneys cast the supervisors as scapegoats. Investigations by industry experts and regulators blamed the deadly disaster on a complex web of mistakes by multiple companies and individuals.
A prosecutor who questioned Mr. Vidrine during Kaluza’s trial asked him whether he did something wrong on the night of the explosion.
“I probably didn’t press hard enough,” Mr. Vidrine testified, according to a transcript. “I mean, I thought I had, but I probably didn’t press hard enough to get more information or questioned some of the information I got.”
The Justice Department launched a sweeping and costly criminal investigation after the rig explosion. The government secured a landmark criminal settlement with BP and record civil penalties against the London-based oil giant.
But none of BP’s onshore engineers or top executives faced criminal charges. And the charges against four BP employees unraveled before skeptical jurors and judges, resulting in acquittals or plea bargains involving lesser crimes and no prison time.
Donald Joseph Vidrine was born in Ville Platte, La., on Oct. 17, 1947. He graduated in 1970 from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La., and began his career as an offshore oil field supervisor.
Survivors include his wife of 48 years, Jacqueline Lafleur Vidrine; a son, Kevin Vidrine; two sisters; and three granddaughters.
In “Deepwater Horizon,” a 2016 action movie about the disaster, John Malkovich portrayed Mr. Vidrine.
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