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 After the deadly mauling of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa and the serious injury to attorney Mark Geragos' clients, Kulbir and Paul Dhaliwal, San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo said, "Something happened to provoke that tiger to leap out of her exhibit."
In a letter to the city's attorneys, Geragos said Singer Associates, the public relations team hired by the zoo, has continued to pursue a strategy of blaming the victims.
"In an attempt to distract attention from its failure to ensure the safety of its patrons, a so-called crisis management team hired by the zoo has made repeated media attacks on the Dhaliwal brothers," Geragos wrote. "On a daily basis these agents of the zoo have made numerous false statements which constitute actionable defamation."
Sam Singer, the zoo spokesman Geragos referred to in his letter, said the agency has provided only factual information intended to shed light on what happened.
"We've impugned no one's character," Singer said.
Geragos said he is planning to file a defamation lawsuit against the public relations agency, which has offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
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 proved false.
Singer said neither statement came from his office.
"Mr. Geragos' batting average for accuracy is between slim and none," he said.
Geragos' letter also stressed that his clients have cooperated fully with the police.
He said that San Francisco police, who are investigating the mauling, have told him they will not criminally charge the brothers.
But police spokesman Sgt. Steve Mannina said Monday that no decision has been made on whether to seek charges.
Geragos' letter comes in response to a letter that Deputy City Attorney James Hannawalt sent Friday asking Geragos to preserve any photographs or call logs that were on his clients' cell phones before the mauling. Hannawalt claimed in that letter that the brothers had refused to let investigators examine the contents.
Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for the city attorney's office, said Geragos' letter didn't acknowledge the request to preserve evidence.
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 "We've received the letter, but our question hasn't been answered," Dorsey said.
Mayor Gavin Newsom said Monday that the city's Recreation and Parks Department Commission will hold public hearings to determine what the city can do to prevent another attack.
In his letter, Geragos alleged that a former zoo employee and a consultant whom he declined to identify told him zoo administrators knew the 12 1/2-foot wall surrounding the tiger habitat "couldn't hold a house cat." Zoo officials have said that they thought the wall was taller, and that a national zoo associate inspected the enclosure regularly before the escape and reported no problems.
At a San Jose funeral home Monday, Sousa's mother, Marilza Sousa, said she would like to hear from the Dhaliwal brothers and get their account of what happened. She said she is disappointed not to have gotten a call yet but understands they may still be in shock.
At the funeral home, guests were greeted by poster boards covered with snapshots of a smiling Carlos Sousa from infanthood and later. The teenager's father, Carlos Sousa Sr., sat silently in a front row near where the body lay in a white-velvet-lined coffin covered with pale flowers. The teen is to be buried Tuesday.
Police and family members have said that Sousa and Paul Dhaliwal tried to distract the tiger after it first went after Kulbir Dhaliwal.
Outside the chapel, Marilza Sousa asked that people remember her son for the way he lived
-- as a "dancing, happy person" -- not for the frightful way he died.
"That's the way I want everybody to remember him," she said, "the way he was
-- a happy kid."
[Associated
Press; By JULIANA BARBASSA]
Associated Press Writers Rob Gloster in San Francisco and Michelle Locke in San Jose contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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