Both state and federal criminal investigations are looking into the Natural Bridge Zoo, court discussion revealed Tuesday during the civil trial that will determine who should have custody of 100 animals seized from the roadside attraction in December.
The jury trial involving civil animal abuse anwed neglect allegations against zoo owners Karl and Debbie Mogensen in Rockbridge County Circuit Court began with opening arguments and the start of state witness testimony Tuesday. But revelations of the ongoing criminal investigations overshadowed any facts involving the state’s case.
Amy Taylor, an investigator with the Virginia Attorney General’s Animal Law Unit, cut short a line of cross-examination questioning from Erin Harrigan, the Mogensens’ attorney, to mention an ongoing criminal investigation linked to the zoo in her testimony.
[Read more: Virginia is the only state whose attorney general’s office includes an animal law unit.]
Later, Judge Christopher Russell heard arguments over whether testimony from zoo veterinarian Ashley Spencer could be heard due to a reference to an ongoing federal investigation apparently related to the case. No further details on either investigation were provided, and Taylor was unavailable for an interview as she is subject to recall for further testimony in the case.
A seven-member jury heard opening arguments and nearly eight hours of witness testimony regarding a December law enforcement raid on the zoo, beginning in earnest a trial scheduled for four days this week in the Lexington courtroom. Monday officially marked the start of the trial, but proceedings concluded in the middle afternoon following jury selection.
This week’s trial represents an appeal of a lower court’s January decision that 39 of the 100 animals must be returned to the zoo. Both the state and the zoo appealed that ruling.
Tuesday’s lengthy hearing only began to focus on the 100 animals in question — the outcome of the trial will determine whether the animals will remain in state custody or be returned to the Mogensens and Natural Bridge Zoo — near the evening hours. Senior Assistant Attorney General Michelle Welch and her team spent most of the time establishing the timeline and details of the events of the Dec. 6-7 raid on the roadside zoo.
The day began with opening arguments. Welch, speaking for the commonwealth, put the question of the week’s trial simply to the jury.
“It’s not about their guilt or innocence but whether the animals were provided adequate care,” Welch said, noting that, while the week’s issue is a civil trial, her side will be held to a criminal burden of proof.
In this case, that would be a “direct and immediate threat to [the animals’] health,” Welch added to the jury. “So that is what we’re going to prove to you over the coming week.”
Harrisonburg attorney Aaron Cook served alongside Harrigan for the Mogensens and delivered the zoo’s opening argument. He told the jury that they would hear multiple stories about Natural Bridge Zoo but only one truth, the one from the witness stand, upon which they must base their decisions. He warned members of the jury that they would hear testimony about unsanitary living conditions for the zoo animals.
“Imagine what an enclosure looks like full of capuchin monkeys at 7 o’clock in the morning,” Cook said, after the monkeys had been alone overnight.
He said they would hear about animals being stressed in their enclosures during the two days of the raid.
“Why do you think they were stressed?” he asked. “Their routine had been broken.”
Cook issued the jury a challenge before testimony began.
“Any time you hear about an act of cruelty,” he said, “turn your notepad over and write it down. And I guarantee you at the end of this case … when you flip your notebook over, it’s going to look just like it does now.”
The first three of seven witnesses for the state were Virginia State Police personnel who executed the warrant Dec. 6-7.
Then Christine Boczar, a sergeant and animal control officer with the Powhatan County Sheriff’s Office, took the stand. She testified that she visited Natural Bridge Zoo undercover twice in the autumn to corroborate information the state received from an informant about conditions at the zoo. Boczar testified that she judged several of the habitats to be below the cleanliness standard for the state and described a dead goat in a corner of one of the enclosures that had been left there by an inattentive staff on Oct. 25. On Nov. 4, Boczar returned undercover as a paying customer and said “most of the conditions were the same,” except that the deceased goat had been removed.
At that time, Boczar testified, she and Taylor pursued the warrant in Powhatan that they eventually used in the December seizures. On the stand, Taylor provided more details on the undercover part of the investigation.
The December raiding party included personnel from the Virginia State Police and animal control officers from several law enforcement agencies around Virginia, along with seven veterinarians.
Taylor said they encountered one unexpected thing: “The biggest surprise was that Asha the elephant was not there,” she said, adding she believed the zoo staff had been tipped off about the raid prior to law enforcement’s arrival. Asha inexplicably wound up at a wildlife park in Florida, The Roanoke Times reported last month. The elephant has not been seized from the Mogensens and its whereabouts now are unclear.
Taylor also described three shelves in the freezer full of dead animals and animal parts, alongside food for both the animals and the zoo’s human visitors.
“Some were packaged in trash bags,” Taylor said. “Some were wrapped in tarps.”
She described dismembered zebra legs sticking out of trash cans, and photographs submitted as evidence showed severed heads and full bodies of mammals and birds kept in the freezer. The zoo’s attorneys contended that the bodies and parts were kept in the freezer to later be donated for scientific and academic research at various institutions. Taylor said law enforcement took 28 animal bodies and nine body parts from the freezer.
The court also heard from Roberto Rodriguez, a Drug Enforcement Administration investigator, and Samantha Moffitt, one of the veterinarians involved in the raid, also testified Tuesday. Rodriguez’s testimony stated that, after being tipped by law enforcement in the raid, he confiscated improperly stored ketamine from the facility, and Moffitt testified about the confiscation of some of the animals — donkeys, llamas, sheep and a Kuvasz dog — from the zoo.
Testimony from state witnesses will continue at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
