Sep 22, 2008 5:42 pm US/Pacific
No Contest Plea Denied In SF Bay Oil Spill
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ―
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The Cosco Busan following the collision with the Bay Bridge last year.
CBS
A federal judge on Monday refused to accept a no-contest plea to felony charges from the operator of a container ship that struck a bridge in the San Francisco Bay last year, spilling 54,000 gallons of oil into the water.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said she wasn't satisfied that Fleet Management Ltd. planned to take responsibility for the spill by pleading no contest to charges it was responsible for the spill and it doctored paperwork to thwart the investigation.
Federal prosecutors had opposed the company's proposal, arguing it was attempting to evade admitting that managers tried to cover up the company's role in the crash.
Hong Kong-based Fleet Management has pleaded not guilty to six felony charges and two misdemeanor counts for the Nov. 7, 2007 crash.
A no-contest plea is nearly identical to a guilty plea except that it can't be used as evidence in lawsuits. Also, with a no-contest plea, a defendant neither admits nor disputes a charge.
In court filings proposing the no-contest plea, Fleet Management had offered to accept the convictions, but claimed the crash was largely the fault of others.
The American pilot of the ship, John Cota, has pleaded not guilty to charges he lied to U.S. Coast Guard officials about his medical record to maintain his license. He has also pleaded not guilty to charges to misdemeanor pollution charges.
Cota and the company are scheduled to stand trial together Nov. 17, though the judge has indicated she is willing to delay the start date by several weeks.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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