Brothers injured by tiger will not face charges, investigator says

[kskiska]

Source: CNN

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Two brothers injured in a Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo will not face charges, the lead investigator in the case told CNN Monday.

San Francisco Police Inspector Valerie Matthews said the investigation had found no evidence that Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal taunted a 300-pound tiger that apparently scaled a 12½ foot wall surrounding its enclosure.

The tiger attacked and killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa and injured the Dhaliwals.

Matthews also said the Dhaliwals were cooperative with investigators.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/07/tiger.attack/

[aquart]

1. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Those slingshots were just for target practice.

[LisaL]

3. There were no slingshots.

[struggle4progress]

4. Slingshot story was an untrue rumor a zoo official spread to the NY Post

[kskiska]

2. I can't believe this, either.

This is the only article on this so far, and gives no details regarding the car or cell phones in police custody, or the results of the toxicology tests.

[struggle4progress]

5. City to hold hearings this week on tiger attack at S.F. zoo

Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, January 7, 2008

... The zoo is operated by a nonprofit called the San Francisco Zoological Society under a complex management agreement established in 1993. The city of San Francisco is the landlord of the zoo and owns the animals, property and facilities; the Zoological Society runs the zoo, overseeing animal care, marketing and fundraising. The city's Recreation and Park Department provides the zoo with an administrative fee to help with the cost of running it and must approve improvements and animal transactions.

In a letter sent today to Larry Martin, president of the city's Recreation and Parks Commission, Newsom said he wants more information about, "how this incident happened and what measures are needed to prevent this type of incident from occurring ever again."

The mayor's office did not immediately announce where or what time Friday's meeting will take place.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/07/MNJAUAMRP.DTL


San Francisco mayor sets public hearings on tiger attack
Bay City News Service
Article Launched: 01/07/2008 02:37:19 PM PST

... The hearings, the first of which is set for Friday, should include "a review, analysis and any recommendations" to improve the lease and management agreement that determines how the zoo runs, according to a statement released this afternoon by Newsom's office ...

Also, the mayor is asking for an industry peer review from the Recreation and Park Commission's general manager, the director of animal care and control and the SF Zoo director to examine the zoo's operational and safety protocols.

Newsom also plans to add a seat to the city's Disaster Council for the zoo director in an effort to incorporate the facility into the city's emergency response process ...

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7904752?nclick_check=1

[AllyCat]

6. Let me get this straight. A tiger just decided one day to climb a 12 1/2 foot wall

to get at a couple of teenagers for no reason? Uh-huh. So why were their things in the tiger enclosure? They just threw them there out of pure terror?

I fell really sorry for the man who was killed and tiger. My sympathies end there.

[downindixie]

7. So why were their things in the tiger enclosure?

What things are you talking about? A stick and a rock,I don't believe those things had their names on them!The zoo was trying to get the public off their backs,so they lied.

[daleo]

13. That's how wild animals are

They have their reasons, but they aren't necessarily reasons that humans would understand.

[kskiska]

8. Victims' attorney strikes back at critics who said brothers taunted tiger

SAN FRANCISCO—An attorney for the two brothers who survived a tiger attack on Christmas accused city and zoo officials who'd suggested the young men provoked the incident of "character assassination," and said that a lawsuit was in the works.

San Francisco Zoo administrators knew the wall surrounding the tiger habitat, at 12 1/2 feet high, "couldn't hold a house cat," charged attorney Mark Geragos, who represents brothers Kulbir and Paul Dhaliwal.

(snip)

Among the examples of false information disseminated to the media were a reference to slingshots being found in the victims' car, and a report that the young men had been drinking in an establishment near the zoo. Both later proved false.

Singer said neither statement came from his office.

"They're patently false," he said. "Mr. Geragos' batting average for accuracy is between slim and none."

Geragos' letter also emphasized his clients have cooperated fully with the police.

He said that San Francisco police, who have an ongoing investigation into the mauling, have told him they will not pursue criminal charges against the brothers. However, police spokesman Sgt. Steve Mannina said Monday that no decision has been made on whether to seek charges in the case.

more…
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7905204

[progressivebydesign]

25. Oh ya, that well respected lawyer who represented that Peterson guy.

I really listen to him. Not. I wonder if they ever allowed the investigators to access their cell phones. For some STRANGE reason they refused to let the police look into what they might have been doing at that time... you know, typical bonehead young male stuff like taunting a tiger.. jumping on the railing.. all the while capturing it with a cell phone video or camera for their myspace.

[complain jane]

9. I see.

So there was a vodka bottle in the car (empty) but that didn't contribute. Witnesses say the guys were taunting the tiger, but that didn't contribute either and in fact we're going to ignore that altogether.

And, one of the only group that was apparently taunting the tiger got mauled.

Plus the tiger suddenly, at that point in time, decided to scale a 12 foot wall to do it out of the blue.

Jesus Christ give me a f'ing break. Over on rightard websites they've got their panties in a bunch because these guys were being held responsible (or so it seemed at that time) for the taunting that (back then) the media agreed had taken place. And they were in beside themselves that anyone would want to take part in a memorial for the majestic creature that was murdered because of the incident.

Sometimes I can't stand people.

[LisaL]

10. Taunting the media agreed had taken place?

:rofl:
So, now media decides what had taken place and what didn't?

[daleo]

14. Anyone could have an empty vodka bottle in a car

It could have been there for days, if it was there at all. It could have been something that was missed on a trip to a bottle recycling center.

Witness said they were taunting the tiger? I thought the witnesses said they were making roaring sounds at the lion enclosure. And perhaps those witnesses decided they might have been mistaken in their hearing or they might have been mistaken in their identification. The young men might have been "roaring with laughter" over a joke, for all we know. Besides, the legal definition of "taunting a zoo tiger" is probably pretty hard to pin down (looking? staring? sticking your tongue out? roaring? turning your back on them? It's hard to say what would bother a tiger, since they don't give testimony).

As for the tiger deciding to escape that day, it may have just gotten tired of being caged up. Who knows with a tiger? The important thing is that the wall was only 12 feet high, which was obviously not high enough.

[kath]

16. Well, according to SF Chronicle article, they were intoxicated:

the two brothers who survived the attack made a quick pact not to cooperate with the police as they rode in an ambulance to the hospital, sources told The Chronicle.

"Don't tell them what we did," paramedics heard 23-year-old Kulbir Dhaliwal tell his brother, Paul, 19.

Sources also say that the younger brother was intoxicated at the time of the incident, having used marijuana and consumed enough liquor to have a blood-alcohol level above the .08 limit for adult drivers. The older brother also had been drinking and using marijuana around the time a 350-pound Siberian tiger escaped and killed Carlos Sousa Jr., the sources said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/01/05/MNVKU9L9L.DTL&tsp=1

[daleo]

17. Most of these reports have been discredited or denied by now

That's why (apparently) we are not seeing charges from the police. Where are these sources now?

By the way, the zoo sells alcohol at the Leaping Lemur Cafe, so if they were intoxicated the zoo may have shared the liability.

[ContraBass Black]

11. If this means that all those unsourced reports of damning evidence were false,

Will these men ever recover their reputations?

[kskiska]

15. Reputations? I guess so.

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Image:Kabil-Paul_Dhaliwal.jpg

[kath]

18. well, they have criminal records already, so their reputations ain't great.

The Dhaliwal family remained behind closed doors at their San Jose home as reporters gathered outside. Court records indicated Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal have both been arrested on minor offenses this year.

Paul Dhaliwal was arrested for being drunk in public on March 24 after being seen allegedly drinking beer and smoking marijuana at an In-N-Out Burger on Capitol Expressway. He was sentenced to attend 10 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

On Sept. 7, Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal were arrested in charges of public drunkenness. Paul Dhaliwal was also charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest. They have a Jan. 15 court date.

http://209.85.207.104/search?q=cache:oxvj8qzqo6AJ:www.contracostatimes.com/ci_7831370+victims+tiger+criminal+record+court+date&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

another link:
http://origin.mercurynews.com/pets/ci_7827401?nclick_check=1

[progressivebydesign]

28. thank you for that.

for some reason people here think that everyone in the world is lying except those guys. and it's just a coincidence that they have a record for being drunk and stoned in public and was reportedly in that condition at the time of the attack, according to first responders (who would have had no way of knowing at that time they already had a record for that).

[progressivebydesign]

26. No, it means they got an aggressive attorney. n/t

[kskiska]

12. UPDATE: Brothers hurt in SF Zoo tiger attack attend funeral service

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Friends and family of the teenager killed in the Christmas Day tiger attack at San Francisco Zoo are paying their final respects to the 17-year-old victim.

(snip)

Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal, who were injured in the attack, cried in front of their friend's coffin before they hugged Sousa's mother and father.

The brothers appeared to have scars and stitches on their scalps, and one of them walked with a limp.

more…
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7913067?nclick_check=1

[kskiska]

19. More on funeral

Survivors attend funeral for friend killed in S.F. Zoo tiger attack

(snip)

Marilza Sousa today was restrained in assigning blame. She said she wanted to ask Paul Dhaliwal, "if you guys pushed the tiger, if you guys jumped the fencing, whatever," but she also noted that the wall to the tiger enclosure was too low by the zoo's own admission.

"It was too small, but now they can do whatever they want to do," she said. "It doesn't change anything. My son is dead."

She also brushed aside the notion of a lawsuit, saying she hadn't even thought about retaining a lawyer.

"I don't think about nothing right now," Marilza Sousa said in accented English before entering the mortuary, which was soon filled with dozens of mourners.

(snip)

A teenage girl ran up to Paul Dhaliwal and hugged him. Moments later he clenched his jaw and stared down as family members and well-wishers placed their hands on the fresh piece of stone sealing in Sousa's casket.

"Hey Carlos, i hope you n a betta place," a mourner wrote on a commemorative Oakland Raiders football for Sousa. Another wrote simply: "Rest in peace big homie."



more pictures…
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/08/MNM6UBBS7.DTL

[kskiska]

20. Emergency order bars tiger survivors from getting their car, phones

(01-08) 15:49 PST SAN FRANCISCO - -- San Francisco city officials have obtained an emergency court order that prevents police from giving back the cell phones and car belonging to the two survivors of the tiger attack at the zoo.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera said the court order was necessary to preserve evidence that may help the city fight any lawsuits filed by the survivors, Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and his 23-year-old brother, Kulbir Dhaliwal, both of San Jose.

(snip)

In a statement released by his office, Herrera said Court Commissioner Bruce Chan had issued the emergency order "just moments" before the Dhaliwal brothers arrived at a police station to pick up their belongings.

The phones and car will remain in police custody at least until a court hearing Friday. That hearing will help determine whether investigators from Herrera's office and representatives from the San Francisco Zoological Society will be allowed to inspect the items. The society is the nonprofit group that runs the zoo operations.

more…
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/08/MNM6UBGRT.DTL

[struggle4progress]

21. Court allows S.F. police to retain tiger victims' cell phones, car (Mercury)

By Connie Skipitares and Leslie Griffy
Mercury News
Article Launched: 01/08/2008 03:25:21 PM PST

... Meanwhile, a former zoo contract worker alleges he was forced quit after his concerns about the big cat grotto's safety and the zoo's emergency policies were ignored in a culture of pettiness and harassment.

According to a sexual harassment suit filed Monday, Lloyd Kraal left his contract job as a construction manager at the zoo after his warnings went unheeded, he was harassed and zoo officials retaliated against him for complaining about his manager - the supervisor charged with ensuring the safety of exhibits ...

http://www.mercurynews.com/alamedacounty/ci_7914020?nclick_check=1

[progressivebydesign]

27. The bros refused to let investigators look at their phone's contents...

I've pretty much suspected that they were doing incredibly stupid shit and recording it on their cell phones for their myspace pages. Sorry, there is just no way a tiger just up and decides to jump over a wall with no reason, and if they were just standing there watching the tiger from across the railing there is no way the tiger would have gotten to them. The police are probably deciding not to charge them, because it would seem cruel or it's impossible to prove.

[anitar1]

22. My sympathies are with the tiger.

The "wild animals" appear to be human. I hope they have frequent nightmares.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

23. As an architect

I would think the wall should have been tall enough to keep the tiger in its enclosure.
Seems the behavior of the patrons is immaterial to the liabilty of the zoo here.

[Triana]

24. WHO is most at fault for this tiger's death?

HUMANS.


Idiots!