Lawyer faces charges after sueing Chevron for more than 20 years

A banned American attorney who has spent more than two decades battling Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX) over pollution in the Ecuadorian rainforest attempted Monday to ward off a criminal disregard charge that resulted from an energy company lawsuit against him . Steven Donziger is on trial in Manhattan federal court for failing to hand over his computer, phones and other electronic devices and for refusing to release his passport in Chevron's civil lawsuit. US District Judge Loretta Preska is presiding over the case without a jury. In an opening speech, the public prosecutor Rita Glavin said that Donziger had made a conscious decision to disregard court orders for the handover of his devices and documents. "Choices have consequences," she said. Martin Garbus, who argued for Donziger, painted a different picture and said the court was initially not clear what it wanted to release from the lawyer. The case is the latest turn in a long-running battle stemming from Donziger's representation of villagers in Ecuador's Lago Agrio region who sought to hold Chevron responsible for water and soil pollution in the jungle between 1964 and 1992. Chevron has claimed that Texaco, which was acquired by Chevron, cleaned up the pollution and that the state-owned Petroecuador was primarily responsible for the pollution. Donziger won a $ 9.5 billion judgment against Chevron in an Ecuadorian court in 2011. Later that year, the US company sued Donziger in federal court in Manhattan, claiming that he and his staff had pressured the presiding judge in Ecuador. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in 2014 in favor of Chevron, saying the Ecuadorian verdict was obtained through bribery, fraud and extortion. Chevron attempted to get back the money Donziger received as a result of the verdict, and Donziger was instructed to hand over certain electronic equipment to the company's forensic experts. When he refused, Kaplan charged him with criminal disregard. Donziger said the charges violated his due process rights under the US Constitution. The Harvard-trained attorney was barred from the bar by a New York state appeals court last year.