The Staten Island District Attorney’s Office will issue subpoenas for the 911 tapes in last week’s deadly ferry crash in a bid to gather evidence in what caused the deadly accident, law-enforcement sources told The Post yesterday.
The move comes as the city suspended a second crew member who was aboard the ill-fated ferry Andrew J. Barberi, which slammed into a pier Oct. 15 near the St. George Terminal, killing 10 people and injuring 60.
DA William Murphy is issuing subpoenas for documents that could help determine what caused the crash, including crew members’ personnel files and other material evidence, sources said.
“We are continuing to gather facts,” said Murphy’s spokeswoman, Monica Brown. “We are not assessing criminality.”
Brown said there are “no plans currently to empanel a grand jury,” even though sources said prosecutors are mulling that decision.
Meanwhile, Robert Rush, a mate on the Barberi, was suspended without pay by the city Department of Transportation after failing to cooperate with the probe.
Rush’s lawyer, Michael Chalos, who represented Exxon Valdez skipper Joseph Hazelwood in the notorious 1989 oil spill off the coast of Alaska, called the suspension a “publicity stunt.”
Chalos said Rush met with National Transportation Safety Board probers this week and had sent a letter to city officials saying he’d meet with them on Tuesday.
“The city is being heavy-handed and unreasonable,” he said. “They are going overboard.”
Rush told cops that ferry Capt. Michael Gansas was not in the pilothouse – a procedure required by DOT regulations – at the time of the accident, sources told The Post.
The move came a day after DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall suspended Gansas for failing to cooperate with NTSB probers and city lawyers.
Gansas blew off federal investigators and sent a letter to city lawyers stating he intends to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Assistant Capt. Richard Smith, who was at the controls at the time, blacked out during the crossing and later tried to commit suicide. He is in critical condition at St. Vincent’s Hospital on Staten Island.
In a letter to the Coast Guard, Rep. Vito Fossella (R-S.I.) urged the agency to look into whether it should “review safety and fitness records of the two captains, and following all legal and administrative procedures, to make the appropriate determination regarding their licenses.”
Additional reporting by Douglas Montero, Murray Weiss and Heather Gilmore