Judge plans to let half of bay spill crew return to China

By PAUL ELIAS Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A judge plans to allow three of six Chinese crew members who have been held in the United States since their ship spilled 53,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay to return home in the next few weeks.

The captain, however, and two other crew members who were on the bridge when the Cosco Busan struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 7 will have to remain technically under arrest another several weeks.

All six had been detained as "material witnesses" to the accident and the criminal case against the ship's American pilot, John Cota, who is charged with two misdemeanor environmental crimes and two felony charges of lying to the U.S. Coast Guard about his medical record. Cota has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero said Monday he was inclined to allow crew members to return to China, instead letting prosecutors and Cota's attorney question them before the trial and show jurors the videotaped exchanges. A trial date for Cota has not been determined.

The six Chinese nationals have been staying in a San Francisco apartment and receiving their pay and daily food stipends since the ship's owners agreed to put up the men through May 31 as a condition for letting the container ship leave the United States once it was repaired.

The videotaped testimony of the three crew members who were not on the ship's bridge during the crash should be completed by the first week of June, Spero said. But it's unclear when the testimony of the other three crew members, including the ship's captain, Mao Cai Sun, will occur.

Spero ordered government officials to negotiate with the ship's owners for an extension of the agreement to pay the crew for roughly three more months.

Federal prosecutors accuse Cota of lying on his 2006 and 2007 medical reports required by the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as less serious crimes of killing birds and fouling the bay through negligent handling of the ship.

Cota was serving as the ship's local pilot, hired to navigate passage through the bay, when the vessel clipped the bridge. Sun, the ship captain, told federal prosecutors the fog was extremely dense and that he felt Cota had the ship going too fast.

The lawyers for the six crew members were ordered Monday to negotiate with federal prosecutors to develop a schedule for the men to give their videotaped testimony. All were ordered back to court next week.