Tuesday, January 21, 2014

It's not a crime, if you are too wealthy and white to do any time

Justice, western style.
A former Halliburton manager was sentenced Tuesday to one year of probation for destroying evidence in the aftermath of BP's massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Anthony Badalamenti, of Katy, Texas, had faced a maximum of one year in prison at his sentencing by U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey. Badalamenti pleaded guilty in October to one misdemeanor count of destruction of evidence. The 62-year-old also has to perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $1,000 fine. Badalamenti was the cementing technology director for Halliburton Energy Services Inc., BP's cement contractor on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Prosecutors said he instructed two Halliburton employees to delete data during a post-spill review of the cement job on BP's blown-out Macondo well.
And good luck keeping your lunch down as you think about the poor black kid doing 5-years for selling pot.
The judge said that the sentence of probation is "very reasonable in this case." "I still feel that you're a very honorable man," he told Badalamenti. "I have no doubt that you've learned from this mistake."

7 comments:

gratuitous said...

I totally agree with the judge that Mr. Badalamenti, as well as his former employer, have learned quite well from his "mistake." I think, however, that I disagree with the judge as to just what they learned.

Bartcop's first rule of mistakes: If someone makes a mistake that puts more money in their pocket, they'll keep making that mistake over and over again. The corollary is that if someone makes a mistake that keeps them from bearing the full legal responsibility for their criminal actions, they'll make that mistake every chance they get.

Thank you, Judge Zainey, for making a point so well that Occupy Wall Street can't possibly improve on it.

Athenawise said...

Judge: "I still feel you're a very honorable man."

"Excuse me while I swat this flying pig."

Anonymous said...

Learned his lesson? I'm sure he has. He can do what ever the fuck he pleases and he can get away with it. I believe this is why vigilantism develops.

pansypoo said...

make sure your crime is white collar. and be white.

Montag said...

No surprise here--the judge is a Bush appointee from N'awlins.

I'm betting that this guy eats his shrimp with 10W-40 instead of cocktail sauce.

kingweasil said...

"Anthony Badalamenti, of Katy, Texas, had faced a maximum of one year in prison at his sentencing by U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey. Badalamenti was the cementing technology director for Halliburton Energy Services Inc., BP's cement contractor on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig"...I bet Badalamenti kept his job got a raise and a hefty bonus for his fine work

Anonymous said...

After reading Molly Ivins, I used to keep a "Too Rich To Go To Prison" file.

Time to reopen that file.