As a high-stakes civil trial nears in the Key Bridge disaster, at least one employee of the Dali cargo ship’s operating company has raised concerns about potential criminal charges.

Karthik Nair, a technical superintendent for Synergy Marine Group, did not want his deposition in the civil case to be made public because “if he is indicted, then publicity that he personally ‘took the Fifth’” would be prejudicial, his attorneys wrote in a motion originally made under seal.

U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar denied the request Tuesday and unsealed it, saying the public had a right of access to information in the civil case.

Bredar said in his ruling that Nair is the only deposed witness who made the request, though the judge also revealed that every member of the ship crew invoked their Fifth Amendment right to protect against self-incrimination as well.

Nair’s Texas-based attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment late Tuesday.

In the early hours of March 26, 2024, the Dali slammed into a support pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, toppling the 47-year-old Patapsco River span in seconds. Six construction workers were killed.

The Singaporean companies that own and operate the Dali are seeking to cap their liability at $44 million — a fraction of the cost of building a new bridge. If they aren’t successful, they could pay out billions. A civil trial is set for June 1, though some plaintiffs, including the State of Maryland, have reached settlements.

The prospect of criminal charges in the Key Bridge case has long loomed; within weeks of the disaster, federal authorities opened a probe, and the FBI raided the Dali.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has declined to discuss the case.

Bredar said at a hearing last month that the civil case would go forward, but that an indictment against the company or individual employees or crew could upend those plans.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation of the disaster found that the ship suffered two electrical blackouts due to an improperly configured fuel “flushing pump” instead of standard automatic fuel pumps. Because the flushing pump lacked an automatic restart, it caused a final loss of power and steering before the ship struck the bridge.

While Nair’s attorneys say he invoked the Fifth Amendment in a civil deposition, he did sit for an interview with the NTSB in May 2024 and denied being aware of the flushing pump.

“Is that something you think you should be made aware of?” an investigator asked Nair.

“Yes, sir, I should be made aware, but should have been informed,” he responded.

For months in the civil litigation, multiple filings have been made under seal and discussed in intentionally vague terms.

Bredar earlier this month asked the attorneys for witnesses in the case to weigh in on whether they wanted their depositions to remain under seal. Eight Dali crew members had previously asked that their deposition transcripts be kept confidential.

In his memorandum opinion, Bredar said five of the eight crew members invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, and a magistrate judge overseeing the matter at the time agreed to keep their depositions sealed.

An additional three witnesses invoked their Fifth Amendment rights, Bredar wrote.

With the civil trial looming, all but one agreed to allow their deposition transcripts to become public, asking only that their addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth be redacted.

Nair’s attorneys argued that his pleading the Fifth Amendment would be prejudicial and cited concerns over “conclusional or argumentative” questions that he was asked and declined to answer in the deposition.

“If you weren’t perpetrating a fraud on the classification society and placing the Dali and the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the six individuals who lost their life on March 26, 2024 at risk, you’d answer my questions, wouldn’t you?” one unidentified attorney asked, according to an excerpt of the transcript.

“But the fact is that you’re choosing not to answer my questions because you know you perpetrated a fraud, you mismanaged the Dali and you and Synergy were responsible for this catastrophe. Correct?”

Bredar called the concerns of Nair’s attorneys “relatively insubstantial” and said that granting their request would put a significant strain on the civil proceedings as they move into a new phase.