A judge in Texas ruled on Friday that people killed in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes are legally considered “crime victims,” a designation that will determine what remedies should be imposed.
In December, some crash victims’ relatives said the Justice Department violated their legal rights when it struck a January 2021 deferred prosecution agreement with the planemaker over two crashes that killed 346 people.
The families argued the government “lied and violated their rights through a secret process” and asked U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor to rescind Boeing’s immunity from criminal prosecution—which was part of the $2.5 billion agreement—and order the planemaker publicly arraigned on felony charges….