.jpg)
At a hearing Wednesday morning in Rockbridge Circuit Court, Judge Christopher Russell ruled on pre-trial motions filed in the Natural Bridge Zoo appeal.
Since their appeal of a Rockbridge General District Court ruling in January, attorneys for the zoo have filed a number of pre-trial motions, including a motion to suppress the warrants for the Dec. 6 and 7 search of the zoo.
Though Russell acknowledged some of the concerns raised, notably that the warrant was filed in Powhatan County and that Rockbridge authorities were not notified until the day of the search, he eventually overruled the motion, as the current case is both civil and operating on an accelerated timeline.
Also overruled was the zoo attorneys’ motion to deny the government’s notice of appeal on the General District Court’s ruling, submitted the day after the zoo’s notice.
Though zoo attorneys argued that the government did not have the ability to appeal a decision from General District Court, the judge determined that right of appeal to higher courts necessitated the ability to appeal out of General District Court.
Another motion filed by zoo attorneys was a request for production of discovery or for a bill of particulars, listing the offenses behind the seizure of each animal.
At the time it was filed, on Feb. 6, Erin Harrigan, attorney for zoo owners Karl and Debbie Mogensen, noted that the motion was preemptive, as the government had not denied the request for information. At yesterday’s hearing, Harrigan said that 25,000 pages of documents have been sent since the beginning of the month.
The judge granted the request for a bill of particulars, to be sent to the zoo’s attorneys next week.
