NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A man whose company allegedly paid for at least part of a 2004 trip to Hawaii taken by Mayor Ray Nagin and others has asked a judge to excuse him from giving a deposition in a civil lawsuit over New Orleans’ crime camera program.Mark St. Pierre, in a newly filed affidavit, said he received a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury March 27. Former technology chief Greg Meffert and his family, as well as Nagin’s family, also went on the 2004 trip.Attorney Eddie Castaing told The Associated Press on Tuesday that St. Pierre had produced documents sought by the subpoena but wouldn’t say if he testified before the grand jury. The story was first reported by The Times-Picayune.Thomas Flanagan, St. Pierre’s attorney in the civil lawsuit, said St. Pierre could expose himself to criminal liability by giving a deposition. If St. Pierre testified and invoked the Fifth Amendment to certain questions, Flanagan said that could be used to prejudice a jury against him.Judge Rosemary Ledet hasn’t ruled on whether to quash St. Pierre’s deposition or postpone the civil case against him.U.S. Attorney Jim Letten told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he would not confirm or deny a grand jury was investigating.St. Pierre, Meffert and Nagin are among the defendants in the 2007 civil case filed by Southern Electronics Inc. and subcontractor Active Solutions LLC., which worked on the initial crime camera system.The plaintiffs, in court documents, allege Meffert and people brought in while he was Nagin’s technology director used their positions at city hall to “misappropriate” the system they’d developed. It also alleges they conspired with Dell Inc., to sell the system.Meffert and Nagin have denied any wrongdoing and have sought to have the claims against them dismissed.St. Pierre once worked with Meffert before Meffert became Nagin’s technology chief in 2002. The lawsuit alleges St. Pierre had ties to the technology office during Meffert’s tenure, which ended in July 2006, and that St. Pierre formed NetMethods in August 2004 to compete with the plaintiffs.When Meffert was asked in one of his depositions if NetMethods had paid for expenses to Hawaii, he said it had, for at least some of his family and Nagin’s. Meffert said: “NetMethods was never involved in any city business, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it.”Nagin said last week that Meffert had “sponsored” the Christmastime trip. Bob Ellis, a deputy city attorney, said Nagin “didn’t accept any trips from the contractors or subcontractors. He accepted a trip from Greg Meffert.”The plaintiffs allege St. Pierre formed a company, Veracent, in January 2006. New Orleans’ inspector general’s office, in a report tracking the crime camera program from 2003 to 2008 and released in early March, said Veracent installed 53 crime cameras for the city.