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3 BP employees arraigned on Gulf oil spill charges

Robert Kaluza, a BP well site leader from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, talks with his attorneys before he enters Federal Court to be arraigned on manslaughter charges in New Orleans, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)
Robert Kaluza, a BP well site leader from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, talks with his attorneys before he enters Federal Court to be arraigned on manslaughter charges in New Orleans, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)
Michael Kunzelman Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two BP rig supervisors and a former BP executive have pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in the deadly Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and the company’s response to the massive 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine and BP’s vice president of exploration for the Gulf David Rainey remained free on bond following their arraignments Wednesday in federal court.

Kaluza and Vidrine are charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 11 rig workers. They are accused of disregarding abnormally high pressure readings that should have been glaring indications of trouble just before the blowout of BP’s Macondo well.

Rainey was charged separately with concealing information from Congress about the amount of oil that was leaking from the well.