San Francisco Zoo Highlights Question of Criminal Negligence
After the tiger attack that left a 17-year-old zoo patron dead and injured two of his friends, the San Francisco Zoo will have an uphill legal battle to face if lawsuits are in fact filed in connection with the attack. Though it’s likely the legal battle will be fought entirely in civil court, the question of responsibility for the tiger attack brings to light relevant questions of criminal negligence that are faced by California criminal defense lawyers on a regular basis.
What is criminal negligence? In essence, criminal negligence occurs when a property owner or responsible person fails to uphold a standard of care to a person to whom they owe a duty of care, causing that person harm or death. The breach of standard of care must generally be extreme for the negligent action to constitute criminal negligence. The person must fail to see that a person in reasonable circumstances would act with a higher standard of care and must act in a way which causes harm to another person. Criminal negligence is usually expressed in charges such as manslaughter, in which there does not exist an intention to kill per se, but where death occurs due to a person’s gross negligence. If a zookeeper at the San Francisco Zoo were accused of criminally negligent manslaughter, the prosecution must be able to prove without a doubt that the injury occurred due to the zookeeper’s failure to act to protect the patron to whom he had a standard of care.
The many complications of criminal negligence are too lengthy for any blog entry, but suffice it to say that a charge of manslaughter or other criminal negligence is extremely serious and carries with it dire consequences such as imprisonment, hefty fines, the possibility of a civil lawsuit, and long-lasting effects on the defendant’s life and reputation. That’s why it’s so important to find a California criminal defense attorney with the skills and resources it takes to investigate your case and represent you at trial. The lawyers of Neil Shouse & Associates have years of experience in criminal defense. Have you been accused of a crime? Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation to find out if our criminal defense services are a good match for your case.
