Ship pilot's lawyer slams new charges

SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 (UPI) -- The lawyer for the pilot of the freighter Cosco Busan is calling new charges connected to an oil spill in San Francisco Bay irrelevant to the case.

John Cota, who was in charge of the container ship when it struck the Bay Bridge last fall, was indicted Tuesday on charges he lied to the U.S. Coast Guard about his prescription medications during his annual license renewal exams in 2006 and 2007.

The new felony charges were added to earlier misdemeanor counts of acting with criminal negligence and killing migratory birds.

Cota's lawyer, Jeffrey Bronstein, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the new charges were "spurious and irrelevant." He said Cota was not under the influence of anything the night the Cosco Busan spilled 50,000 gallons of fuel oil into the fog-shrouded bay and that he had made a good-faith effort to comply with the medical information questions on his exams.

The Chronicle said the indictment did not state any connection between Cota's meds and the Cosco Busan incident itself.