Judge: Mobile phones in tiger attack may be inspected
File photo: This is a tiger. Do not taunt.
(Credit: Declan McCullagh/mccullagh.org)
A California judge has said the San Francisco Zoo may inspect the mobile phones of two brothers involved in a deadly tiger attack on Christmas Day.
Superior Court Judge Socrates Peter Manoukian in Santa Clara County ruled late Friday that the city and the zoo can review the devices for photographs that might provide clues about what happened that day, and for logs of conversations near the time of the 911 call.
He wrote: "Under the maxim that a picture is worth a thousand words the Court believes that the allegation of existence or nonexistence of any photographs is specific enough to justify an attempt to perpetuate them."
The defendants in the civil lawsuit are brothers Kulbir Dhaliwal and Amritpal Dhaliwal. They were mauled during the tiger attack and their friend, Carlos Sousa Jr., was killed. The tiger pen's wall was only 12.5 feet high, 4 feet below generally accepted safety standards. The Siberian tiger, Tatiana, was shot dead by police that day.
Manoukian said, however, that the city and the zoo could not inspect the contents of the car. (There have been reports that a bottle of alcohol was present.) Their attorney has called these efforts a fishing expedition.
It's unclear what the real impact of this ruling will be--that's because the San Francisco Police Department has obtained a search warrant allowing them to examine the car and mobile phones in conjunction with a separate criminal investigation.
Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent, chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says, "We oughta have a new federal law against this." E-mail Declan. 
I feel the zoo workers should be up on murder charges for the wrongful death of the innocent tiger!!! They knew they did wrong!!! It's too bad animals can't talk back!!! Shame on them and everyone else who mistreats animals, what goes around, eventually comes back!!!
Do you not mean the three Zoo Visitors who were "acting like Circus Clowns" and taunting and throwing objects (allegedly) at Tatiana the tiger rather than the Zoo Keepers? Why should the Zoo Keepers go up on wrongful death charges when they did not shoot the tiger?
I truly feel it as a tragedy that Carlos Sousa, jr. lost his life and I do grieve for his parents and I do not condone Tatiana being shot. It is for the Police Officers to answer why they chose shoot Tatiana rather than let the Zoo Keepers tranquilize her. The real criminals however are the visitors who do not know how to respect the life of others, not the Zoo Keepers.
Yes, Tatiana had mauled a zookeeper's arm, but the Keeper, Lori Komejan admitted that she, not the tiger was in the wrong. The blame behind the loss of Carlos Sousa, jr., life can only be answered by Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal.
The Dhaliwal brothers refusal to allow the police to search their cell phones' Text messages and pictures coupled with Paul Dhaliwal changing of his story to Carlos Sousa, jr. mother from "we were simply smiling and laughing when we were attacked" to "we did wave our hands and yell at it" after Paul Dhaliwal's foot print was discovered on the railing proves that they were more than innocent by standers.
If found guilty of provoking the attack that left their fried dead and his family without a son, in honour of Tatiana and Carlos Sousa, jr., family and friends, I hope the Dhaliwal brothers are sentenced to work at the SPCA or an endangered animal rescue facility so that they may learn how precious lives other their own and their own species are.
killed. there is no doubt in my mind that the boys were being mean to the tiger.
and confine it, then expect it to act like a house cat for the
remainder of it's life. I'm sure the tiger was provoked, but killing it
seems extreme, there's no reason for not using tranquilizers to
subdue the animal. Another beautiful animal is dead due to poor
judgement!!
Sounds like the kid killed needs to be put into the Darwin Awards for all to see that you don't provoke a wild animal.
Granted its sad if an animal has to die any way but the proper thing the cops should've done os shoot the tiger. Let the law decide the peoples fate not an enraged tiger with some sort of vendetta.
If the victim was taunting the animal and his friends were participating, they should be charged with manslaughter or second degree murder (For the death of there friend). The police were in no way at fault.
- The lesson here is never tick off something that can eat you.
- by efrancin January 22, 2008 11:34 AM PST
- The only interest this attorney has in the case is that its a no-brainer that will drag on and on; he'll get millions in fees. The only victim here was the tiger. The zoo is at fault because regardless, a tiger shouldn't get out; however, the zoo will file a lawsuit against the agency that certifies the zoo as they supposedly inspected and approved the zoo (after the 1st tiger attack). The reason why its important to understand the boys (or men) has to do with civil damages. If they can prove that there was contributory negligence (i.e., unreasonable behavior on the part of the victim that set the situation in motion), that will certainly mitigate the amount paid out on that side of things. I think its to demonstrate that these guys were not innocent by-standers and that when you do stupid things, stupid stuff happens and usually to someone else. These guys are nothing but cowards - taunted a caged animal (who got the best of them) and then, refusing to give any information to the paramedics that might help becuase they were concerned about their previous criminal background coming out and the fact that if they were smoking pot and drinking, probably a violation of their bail condition.
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