SAN FRANCISCO — The city attorney wants permission to inspect the car and cell phones belonging to the two brothers who survived a tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo, but the victims are balking, the attorney said.
Deputy City Attorney James Hannawalt sent a letter on Friday to the brothers’ lawyer, Mark Geragos, asking him to make sure they preserve any photographs or call logs that were on the phones before the Christmas Day mauling that claimed the life of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa.
A call to Geragos’ office on Friday was not immediately returned.
San Francisco police currently have possession of the phones, but the brothers, Kulbir and Paul Dhaliwal, have refused to authorize investigators to examine the contents, according to Hannawalt.
Hannawalt is proposing that his office and evidence experts hired by the brothers be allowed to inspect the phones and the car simultaneously.
The 350-pound Siberian tiger climbed or leaped out of its outdoor pen on Christmas Day, killing Sousa and injuring the two brothers. Police are investigating whether the victims taunted the animal. Geragos has said they didn’t do anything to goad the animal out of its enclosure.
Zoo officials say the tiger likely climbed out of an empty moat that separated the public from the animal’s enclosure, which had a 121/2-foot wall, making it 4 feet shorter than the recommended minimum for U.S. zoos.
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