Curator testifies on ape's 1st escape

Frederick Beall made a quick decision: He backed away, slowly, from the Western lowland gorilla standing before him after it had mysteriously escaped from an exhibition space inside the Franklin Park Zoo.

It was Aug. 13, 2003, and Beall, the general curator of the zoo, said in court yesterday he had left an office in the Tropical Forest exhibit after a "code 1" - dangerous animal escape - chattered over the zoo's radio system.

Beall learned the escapee was Little Joe, but did not know the ape's location until he turned a corner and saw the gorilla standing near another primate display space inside the Tropical Forest building.

"Very slowly, I backed away . . . for my safety," Beall testified yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court. "I know I didn't want to have physical contact with him."

Beall is one of five zoo officials being sued by Terrasita Duarte-Scott on behalf of her daughter, Nia Scott, who was 2 years old when Little Joe escaped a second time, attacked the girl's baby-sitter, and injured the toddler on Sept. 28, 2003.

The family is suing for physical and emotional damages, alleging the zoo and its officials were negligent in failing to make Little Joe's exhibition space escape-proof.

Beall, who was not on duty when the girl was attacked six weeks after the ape's first escape, said Little Joe's manner of exiting the gorilla area is still a mystery. "We could never figure out how he had gotten out," Beall said.

Soon after the August escape, when the gorilla was restrained without incident and confined to a secure area, zoo officials fortified the exhibition space by lining the perimeter with electrified wiring along the 12-foot-high walls.

Beall said he and other zoo officials watched closely when Little Joe was allowed back into the exhibition space more than a month later. The gorilla prowled the area, apparently upset by the addition of the wiring and the change in his environment.

"He obviously looked around and saw that something was different," Beall testified.

That same day, Zoo New England's chief executive officer, John Linehan, ordered the gorilla removed and also ordered more "hot wire" installed, according to testimony.

But four days after being allowed back into the viewing area, Little Joe escaped again, attacked the toddler and her baby-sitter, and was on the run for about 2 1/2 hours before being recaptured.

Neither Duarte-Scott nor her daughter have testified at the civil jury trial, which is expected to conclude early next week.