Ship’s crew may face longer stay

Lawyers for the pilot of the ship that struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge say there is new evidence raising doubts about the Chinese crew’s truthfulness after the incident, but say the crew should be detained as witnesses for several more months.

The six crew members already have been held in Northern California as “material witnesses” for eight months while the case against Capt. John Cota plods along.

Cota was at the helm of the container ship Cosco Busan in November when it sideswiped a bridge support tower, spilling 53,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay.

He has been charged with two misdemeanor environmental crimes and two felony charges of lying to the Coast Guard about his medical record.

Cota’s lawyers argued in court Friday that some or all of the crew members should be held at least until October to testify at Cota’s scheduled trial.

Lawyers had planned to question several crew members Monday, but a U.S. magistrate judge canceled the depositions when Cota’s defense lawyers said the new evidence was too voluminous and complex for them to process in time.