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Tiger Mauling Survivors' Lawyer Is At Home In The Spotlight

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  • Tiger Mauling Survivors' Lawyer Is At Home In The Spotlight

    TIGER MAULING SURVIVORS' LAWYER IS AT HOME IN THE SPOTLIGHT
    Kevin Fagan, [email protected].

    San Francisco Chronicle, CA
    Jan 7 2008

    Pit bull. Hollywood. Showboat.

    All of these have been used to describe Mark Geragos, the attorney
    who jetted up from Los Angeles last week to represent the two brothers
    who were mauled in the Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco
    Zoo. And does that bother Geragos?

    Hardly.

    "It's all about the client," he said. "So if they want to say I do
    everything I can for my client, fine."

    Indeed, in between the showboating jibes, they do say that - meaning
    everyone from other lawyers to the galaxy of cable-show talking heads
    who book him to fill the airwaves with opinion, from Larry King to
    Geraldo Rivera.

    "Like they say, any publicity is good publicity, and Mark has certainly
    had a lot," said Gary Bostwick, another Los Angeles attorney who
    draws from the same sort of client pool, having represented baseball
    great Steve Garvey and the infamous "Fatal Vision" killer, Jeffrey
    MacDonald. "But that's not the only thing he is about. Defense lawyers
    like Mark who do these kinds of unpopular cases are on a mission that
    is like tilting at windmills, like it's a duty to find justice. He
    works very hard."

    Before Geragos, 50, rose to national celebrity status in 1998 with
    his successful fight to win acquittal for Clinton Whitewater figure
    Susan McDougal, he was known mostly as a Los Angeles workaholic who
    was good at keeping accused murderers and swindlers out of prison.

    A parade of stars, from actress Winona Ryder and singer Michael Jackson
    to Laci Peterson's convicted husband, Scott, followed McDougal's case,
    and with each case - win or lose - Geragos' star ascended further.

    The San Francisco Zoo's tiger case, which has grabbed international
    headlines for more than a week, was a natural fit.

    Multimillion-dollar lawsuits are almost certain to be filed against
    the zoo for not properly enclosing the tiger.

    Geragos said he signed on to represent Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and his
    23-year-old brother, Kulbir, because they were being smeared in the
    press and by the zoo when what happened to them was "mind-boggling."

    The most important fact in the entire affair, Geragos said, is that
    zoo enclosures are supposed to be so secure that animals can't escape,
    no matter how provoked they are.

    "Trust me, when the zoo goes on the stand to defend itself about what
    happened, it's going to look pretty bad," he said.

    Practically from the moment the two were taken to San Francisco
    General Hospital after the evening attack that left their friend
    Carlos Sousa Jr. dead and the brothers clawed and bitten, accusations
    and implications have swirled that they taunted the tiger Tatiana
    into launching her rampage. If true, the pair could be guilty of a
    misdemeanor under San Francisco law that prohibits disturbing zoo
    animals. It didn't help, image-wise, that the Dhaliwals have had
    allegedly drunken scraps with the police and are despised as noisy
    boors by several of their neighbors.

    "The bottom line is that these boys were doing no taunting,
    and the fact that they are being attacked (with allegations) is
    unconscionable," Geragos said. "I wouldn't accept anything coming
    out of the mouth of anyone associated with the zoo."

    No zoo officials have openly accused the brothers of taunting the
    tiger, but high-profile crisis consultant Sam Singer of San Francisco
    has carefully treaded toward that edge, saying leadingly that "all
    of the facts still aren't out" about the incident. Because of this,
    Geragos takes special aim at Singer, calling him a "so-called crisis
    manager who has been peddling rumors."

    Singer fires back that "anything that a defense attorney says has to
    be taken with not a pinch of salt, but a ton of salt."

    It's all par for the course for Geragos, say those who know him.

    "Mark was born to be a lawyer," said Loyola Law School Professor
    Laurie Levenson, who has known Geragos for years and had him talk to
    her classes. "It's all he ever wanted to do. Doing a personal injury
    case like (the tiger attack) is a little unusual for him, but he's
    a smart guy, so you can bet he won't miss any details. And he likes
    the high-profile cases - the higher the better."

    In his national spotlight cases, he's had a mixed scorecard.

    Ryder was convicted of shoplifting, Peterson went to Death Row and
    baseball slugger Barry Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson was unable to
    avoid jail for contempt. But then again, U.S. Rep. Gary Condit was
    never charged in connection with the death of his mistress and intern
    Chandra Levy. Geragos also helped win $37.5 million for victims in the
    century-old Turkish genocide of 1.5 million Armenians, and prostitution
    charges were dismissed against James Bond film director Lee Tamahori.

    Sympathetic client, famous client, seemingly dirtbag client - they're
    all the same to Geragos. The only important thing, he has consistently
    said for years, is that he believes the client has a case. And if
    that's so, he's in it to flat-out win.

    "Every case has a life of its own," Geragos said. "You take them one
    at a time."
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