(Reuters) — A U.S. judge in Texas on Thursday denied a legal bid by families of the victims of two Boeing 737 MAX crashes to reinstate or reject a deferred prosecution agreement from January 2021.
Boeing won immunity from prosecution as part of a $2.5 billion Justice Department settlement over a 737 MAX fraud conspiracy charge related to the plane’s flawed design.
The families had asked the court to strip Boeing of immunity from prosecution, toss out, revise or monitor the agreement and to order that information about Boeing’s conduct be released.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that he did not have the legal authority to grant the relatives̵
7; request despite what he called “Boeing’s egregious criminal conduct.”Judge O’Connor ruled in October that the 346 people killed in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes, in 2018 and 2019, are legally “victims of crime” and said the Justice Department had failed to meet its obligations under the law.
Judge O’Connor ordered Boeing to stand trial on the felony fraud conspiracy charge in 2021. Boeing, which pleaded not guilty last month and had argued against reopening the plea deal, did not immediately comment. Boeing says it has fully complied with the agreement and made significant reforms.
“This court has enormous sympathy for the victims and loved ones of those who died in the tragic plane crashes as a result of Boeing’s criminal conspiracy,” Judge O’Connor said in his ruling. “Had Congress vested this court with an overarching authority to ensure that justice is done in a case like this, it would not hesitate.”
But Judge O’Connor said he did not have the legal means “to remedy the incalculable harm suffered by the victims’ representatives.”
Paul Cassell, an attorney representing families of the Boeing victims, said they were disappointed by the verdict and plan to appeal. He said Boeing and the Justice Department “created an illegal and secret agreement without any chance for the families to discuss it.”
Boeing’s best-selling 737 MAX entered service worldwide in March 2019 for 20 months after two fatal crashes, in Indonesia and Ethiopia – a move that cost Boeing more than $20 billion.
“Boeing’s crime can rightly be considered the deadliest corporate crime in the history of the United States,” Judge O’Connor wrote.
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