New judge assigned to BP workers' criminal case

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A federal judge has disqualified herself from presiding over the Justice Department's case against two BP supervisors charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 11 workers from the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion.

U.S. District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown said in an order Friday that she is recusing herself because she worked on civil litigation related to BP's 2010 Gulf oil spill when she was the city attorney for New Orleans.

The case against BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine was reassigned to U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle.

Lemelle also has been assigned a separate case against former BP executive David Rainey, who is charged with withholding information about the severity of the spill from Congress.

Kaluza, Vidrine and Rainey are scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 28.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)