BOSTON -- The company that made the glue used in the Big Dig project is now the first to face criminal charges in the collapse that killed a Jamaica Plain woman last summer.

NewsCenter 5's Shiba Russell reported that legal experts said this is just the beginning, as the state launches its legal attack on the firms caught up in the tragedy.

According to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, the company that made the epoxy that failed causing the tunnel panels to collapse knew or should have known the adhesive would not hold.

"As that creep process progressed, the anchor bolts moved, and the ceiling and the roof and the ceiling that is suspended just begins to slowly slip," Coakley said.

On Wednesday, Powers Fasteners was indicted on one charge of involuntary manslaughter.

"I think it is clear that in 1999 there were more than asleep at the switch because then, at that point, they could observe themselves firsthand the displacement that was occurring in the tunnel," said special prosecutor Paul Ware.

Legal experts said targeting the smallest company first in a long list of possible defendants is a viable tactic.

"They could pursue this company in the criminal arena that company could offer to cooperate, some sort of plea agreement," said David Yas of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

For now, Power instead it is unfairly being singled out, saying in a statement that the AG knows "at no time did anyone tell Powers and Powers never had reason to believe that its Fast Set product was used in the tunnel ceiling."

If convicted, the maximum penalty Powers faces is $1,000. But larger judgments could be sought in civil court.

"In a civil arena, where the standard of evidence if lighter, you have to show less. You just have to show in a civil arena when you are suing for money that there was negligence," Yas said.

Yas said the big message from the state is that while a $1,000 fine may not seem like a lot, it could cost firms lucrative government contracts.