Charges dropped against former Exxon executive

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A sexual assault charge against a former Exxon Mobil Corp executive was dropped after a suburban Houston grand jury declined to issue an indictment, an official of the Montgomery County, Texas, district attorney’s office said on Wednesday.

David Russell Scott, 50, was the senior vice president in charge of Exxon’s multi-billion-dollar shale oil business when he was arrested on a sexual assault charge at a Magnolia, Texas, motel on Oct. 5.

“The district court dismissed the complaint and information upon the state’s motion (on Tuesday), which motion was based on the absence of an indictment from the grand jury,” said Mike Holley, first assistant district attorney for Montgomery County, in an emailed statement.

Holley declined to further discuss the case.

Scott’s attorney Dan Cogdell said Exxon fired Scott following the arrest.

Cogdell praised the Montgomery County district attorney’s office for presenting evidence of a consensual encounter with a woman at a bar that later moved to a hotel.

“David should never have been charged,” Cogdell said in a telephone interview. “He was stuffed and cuffed before this was ever investigated. This guy has paid a price he never should have had to pay. He was terminated by Exxon costing him millions of dollars.”

Scott is unlikely to regain his job with Exxon, Cogdell said.

“I’m no employment lawyer, but I doubt Exxon will say we made a mistake,” he said. Exxon spokesperson Emily Mir declined to comment on Wednesday.

Exxon named Bart Cahir, effective Nov. 1, to replace Scott as senior vice president of upstream unconventional.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; additional reporting by Sabrina Valle; Editing by Leslie Adler)