Halle Weingarten, a certified forensic toxicologist who runs Independent Toxicology Services in San Jose, was Santa Clara County's chief crime lab toxicologist for nearly 20 years until she retired.

She said, "It's absolutely impossible to say" how the drug and alcohol affected Carlos, who was 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighed 272 pounds".

"They could be contributing factors, but this doesn't tell you how much he smoked, only that he had smoked it recently, probably within the last two hours. You just don't know what individual tolerances are. While alcohol can increase risk-taking behavior, pot usually mellows people out."

As for alcohol, Carlos' system had half the amount of what's considered illegal for an adult driver, which is .08 percent.

Carolos Sousa Jr and two friends were at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day when shortly before closing time, a Siberian tiger named Tatiana leaped out of her enclosure by scaling the wall, and attacked them.

Sousa died and his two friends were injured.

Police later shot Tatiana the tiger dead.

There were allegations that the trio had been taunting the tiger, but a San Francisco police investigation did not produce any evidence of wrongdoing.

The incident revealed that the wall to the zoo's tiger enclosure was four feet shorter than industry standards, and the zoo has since spent $1.7 million in safety renovations.

The fence now stands at 16.4 feet, as opposed to the 12 feet it stood at when the mauling occurred.

Sousa's family, and the family of his two friends who were brothers, have filed claims against the city of San Francisco and the zoo. The city has denied those claims, setting the stage for a long and protracted lawsuit to be filed.

"We already know he had a very low amount of marijuana," said Michael Cardoza, a Walnut Creek attorney representing the Sousa family. "But it's totally irrelevant. They are using this to divert people down the primrose path to say, 'See, they were under the influence.' "

Cardoza said the zoo and San Francisco are trying to incite people's emotions by alleging the men taunted Tatiana.

"But all they were doing was waving their arms," he said. "There are millions of people who go to zoos who do that. The city is strictly liable for this. The zoo should have protected their patrons and their animals and they've done an abysmal job of that."

Canna Zine Comment
Throughout todays litigious society it seems the first question a defense lawyer in a liable case asks, is whether there are any traces of drugs in the plainants system, as if thats an automatic case where the protection of the public need not apply? From where I'm sitting thats a direct reflection of the government and its stance on cannabis.

The use of marijuana automatically demotes any person to the status of a nobody with little or no human rights. Simply using cannabis is enough for your constitutional rights to be all but negated, as the San Fransisco zoo has proven in this case.

They are attempting to paint a picture of Carlos Sousa Jr and his two friends. Using cannabis as the canvas and alcohol as the oils, as if that should make any difference at all when it comes to loss of life.

Was Carlos Sousa Jr high? He may well have been? There's no proof either way, but the fact that has been proven beyond reasonable doubt, is if he was high he wasn't high enough, as the hastily converted tiger enclosure proves when it came to light the walls of the enclosure were fully 4 feet shorter than they should have been.

Had the walls been at the required 16 feet, simply put, Tatiana the Tiger, and Carlos Sousa Jr, would still be alive today.

The case continues.

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