Girl, 6, describes gorilla attack in court
Suit seeks damages in Little Joe's escape
In a bright and clear voice, a 6-year-old Boston girl spoke yesterday of nightmares and blood and claws and a gorilla named Little Joe, who attacked her four years ago after escaping from his enclosure at the Franklin Park Zoo.
"He attacked me," the girl, Nia Simone Scott, testified in Suffolk Superior Court. "He hit me. He hit me with his claws. Then he dragged me and gave me stitches."
Wearing a pink plaid skirt and her hair in braids, the first-grader spent about 20 minutes telling a rapt jury about the terrifying events of Sept. 28, 2003, when Little Joe escaped from Tropical Forest, an enclosed exhibition of jungle animals, and came after her, three other little girls, and Courtney Roberson, a family friend.
Nia's testimony was the emotional highlight of the civil trial that may go to the jury today.
Her mother, Terrasita Duarte-Scott, is suing Zoo New England and five top officials for her daughter and herself, seeking money for physical and emotional damages she contends they suffered. The family contends the zoo knew Little Joe presented a risk to get free - he had escaped that August - but did not take enough steps to secure the gorilla enclosure.
Nia testified she has scars in several places along her forehead and on both of her legs where Little Joe grabbed her. She also said the gorilla damaged her teeth. "He pushed them up."
As the key witness was questioned, the family's lawyer, Donald Gibson, repeated the same series of questions, fashioning them so that Nia Scott could provide one-word answers.
Scott was 2 years and 9 months old when she went to the zoo on that Sunday evening with Roberson, who testified last week that the gorilla attacked at about 5:45 p.m., just before the zoo closed.
Roberson testified that the gorilla confronted them inside the exhibit and that they bolted through one set of doors, down a long hallway, screaming with terror. Roberson said she reached the exterior door, then turned around and picked up Nia, who had lagged behind.
Roberson grabbed the girl, and tried but failed to keep Little Joe inside the tunnel. The gorilla pushed through the door and tossed her aside. Roberson said she last saw Little Joe standing over Nia'a prone body.
"The gorilla was right behind us," Nia recalled on the stand yesterday. "He grabbed my pants. . . . He dragged me back." The girl said she did not move after Little Joe left and waited to be rescued, because she was fearful the gorilla would return.
During cross examination by Kevin G. Kenneally, the lawyer for Zoo New England, Nia initially seemed confused by an open-ended question he asked her, but she also rallied and repeated, in halting sentences, her description of the attack.
She also told Kenneally she does have stuffed animals and considers Curious George to be one of her favorites.
Duarte-Scott, who took the stand after her daughter yesterday, described the horrific scene at Boston Medical Center, where her daughter was rushed after a zoo employee rescued her.
The girl was bleeding from the lips, mouth, and forehead; a brace was clamped around her neck, and she was thrashing about, shouting loudly, her mother said.
"She was screaming, 'Joe! Get off me!' " Duarte-Scott recalled.
Duarte-Scott said her daughter's behavior changed after the attack. She became more aggressive, resumed using a pacifier, needed diapers again, and refused to sleep in her own room.
Nia, her mother said, continues to have nightmares about being chased by the gorilla.
She said her daughter has twice gone to therapists, but that the visits seemed to cause more harm.
Duarte-Scott said she had also suffered since the attack from feelings of inadequacy as a parent and depression because she could not protect her daughter that evening.
"It's just being in pain, a lot of pain," Duarte-Scott testified.
John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com. 